A dramatic landscape of ancient rice terraces winding around Longji Mountain, the Dragon Backbone Rice Terraces are the finest in all of China. This is a beautiful, high-elevation attraction unlike anything most tourists have ever seen.
Work on these terraces began under the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century. Development continued for 400 years to yield the final product. The entire area spans an elevation of 1,000 to 3,500 feet and covers more than 16,000 acres.
Farmers still flood the terraces in the springtime to irrigate the new rice crop. Verdant ribbons of rice appear in the summer, winding along the contours of the mountains and demarking the elevation like a topographical map. Colors change from green to gold before the autumn harvest.
These terraces undulate across the countryside, coiling around hillsides and framing the mountains. A world away from China’s metropolitan giants, the terraces are a testament to the country’s longstanding history, with ethnic minority cultures here carrying on their agricultural lifestyle as they have for centuries.
Getting There & Away
Access is from Longsheng, a small town 16 miles from the entrance to the scenic zone. The short distance takes as long as an hour to navigate on the rural, mountain roads. From Longshen, the next stop is Guilin (2 hours by bus) where Liangjiang International Airport provides service to destinations across Southern China and Southeast Asia.