China
When
April to June | Sept to Oct
Price
From 2 300€ excl. flights
(based on 2 people sharing)
How long
5 nights
Ideal length
Guilin, in southern China, owes its fame to karst peaks that rise abruptly from the plain along the Li River, a landscape so iconic it appears on the back of the twenty-yuan banknote. An hour's drive away, the Longsheng rice terraces, literally the "dragon's backbone," have traced concentric curves across the mountainside for seven hundred years, farmed by the Zhuang and Yao minorities using largely unchanged methods.
The Li River, which winds between Guilin and the small town of Yangshuo over about fifty kilometres, crosses a landscape of limestone karst peaks sculpted by millions of years of erosion, a scene so famous in China it appears on the back of the twenty-yuan banknote. A traditional bamboo raft cruise, or a tourist boat for longer distances, reveals this landscape ranked among the country's most beautiful, past fishing villages and water buffalo bathing in the shallows.
The Longsheng rice terraces, carved into the mountainside since the Yuan dynasty about seven hundred years ago, owe their nickname "dragon's backbone" to their concentric curves hugging the terrain like scales. The region remains home to the Zhuang and Yao minorities, the latter renowned for the exceptional length of their hair, never cut since adolescence according to a tradition still alive in some villages.
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A Li River Hotel
A hotel with a direct view of the Li River and its karst peaks in Yangshuo, a terrace overlooking the water, an ideal starting point for bamboo raft cruises.
A Longsheng Terraces Guesthouse
A wooden guesthouse run by a Zhuang family, rooms overlooking the terraced rice fields, local cuisine prepared from rice grown on site.
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