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200908 Visit to Countryside of Yuanyang Area and Neighboring Regions |
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Some of our new guides hadn't been to Jianshui and Honghe Area, not very familiar with the itineraries we were promoting in that region, like Emma and Stef, the others, Ian and Billy, they were there several times, but only knew some normal tour routes, clients' request that guide should know more and could go further never stopped. August was our off-season, I got some time, so decided to take them to revisit Jianshui and Honghe Areas, even it rained a lot in this period. That was a wonderful region! |
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DAY 01 We started at in the morning from Jinghong, drove my old mini van, it's not comfortable vehicle, but young guys seemed quite excited. Trip was quite long today, more than 500 km, via Pu'er, Mojiang and Shiping, we arrived in Jianshui at midnight finally. |
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DAY 02 I was the only driver, tired of driving more than 10 hours yesterday, so stayed later, Billy showed other guides around town in the morning. At noon, we moved to Tuanshan, a village quite famous for their traditional dwellings under good conservation. After, another long drive, we originally planned to arrive in Jinping, but my broken van died in serious downfall, when my van came back to life, our trip was already delayed by 2 hours. Not tired of driving, but tired of waiting for help, we stopped in Manhao. |
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| Chao Yang Archway Gate in Jianshui | Tuan Shan Village, many old houses and buildings | |
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DAY 03 Continue drive to Jinping, mountainous and scenic road, there were some ethnic villages on the way and many rice terraces, but pity, weather was bad, road was wet and view was obstructed by thick fog. Today was market day of Jinping, very ethnic occasion, we saw a lot of red-top Yao Minority people in the streets, interesting to see many red caps moving briskly on the top of crowds. |
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| On the way from Man Hao to Jinping | Market of Red-top Yao, many red and pointed hats | |
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| She's beautiful, and gave me a very sunny smile | Three old ladies were having a joyful chat | |
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DAY 04 Drove to a small town at the southernmost point of Jinping for another market in the morning. Town was very small and from which across the river it's Vietnam. Also a Yao market, but different branch, Indigo Yao according to market people, very colorful and exotic, we saw even some minority people from another side of border. In the afternoon, I drove long way again, via Luchun to Xinjie of Yuanyang, the most famous place for view of rice terraces. Xinjie was the former county seat of Yuanyang. |
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| Indigo Yao women were gathering for breakfast | Indigo Yao girls on the market | |
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| She's also Yao, but from the other side of border | A branch of Hani, closer to Akha as we know | |
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| Nice view of mountains, rice terraces and river valley | Beautiful view of rice terraces on our way | |
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DAY 05 To enjoy the view of rice terraces around Yuanyang, hiking is the best way. We walked around 7 hours across the most beautiful and biggest area of rice terraces today, picturesque view was always around us, not the best season for view of rice terraces, but fields with all yellow or green rice plants were same intoxicating! |
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| Hiking across area of rice terraces, enjoyable walk | View of rice terraces on our way of hiking | |
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| Kid played hide-and-seek when I tried to shoot him | View of rice terraces on our way of hiking | |
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| Lovely Hani girl, her smile was so sweet and clean | View of rice terraces on our way of hiking | |
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DAY 06 Continue hiking, shorter, more mountainous, but same nice, we crossed farm land, forest and some Hani villages on the way. Several hours later, we arrived at Lao Hu Zui, the spot famous for combined view of rice terraces and sunset. Seemed we didn't have good luck, weather was not very nice, but absolutely young guys were not disappointed, they cheered over large area of rice terraces that suddenly appeared in front of us. On later afternoon, we drove to Niu Jiao Zhai, for the market of next day. |
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| View of rice terraces on our way of hiking | Walking in bad weather, but in high spirit | |
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| In cold and wet weather, azaleas were in full bloom | At the end of hiking, beautiful view was reward | |
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DAY 07 It's a noisy and crowded market of Hani and Yi people, this was also my first time to see the market in Niu Jiao Zhai, so spent whole morning there taking photos and seeing people sell or buy things. Costume of Hani people here were some different from that of Xinjie or Shenchun, more bright color and more decoration, not always dark blue. Later we returned Xinjie. |
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| Fully loaded tractor, it's our mountain taxi | Hani women in colorful costumes, talking in shade | |
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| Bustling Yi ethnic women in the market | Colorful and lively market of Niu Jiao Zhai | |
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DAY 08 We decided to revisit Niu Jiao Zhai, not by road, but by walk, the hiking from Xinjie to Niu Jiao Zhai was also nice according to local people. Hiking took us around 6 hours, but actually, it's only a long descent and a long ascent, Xinjie and Niu Jiao Zhai faced each other respectively on top of two mountains. We passed by some rice terraces, ethnic villages, arrived at around 15:30, it's nice walk, obviously, people along this route were more friendly, maybe they got less annoyed by tourists, I guessed. By a mini van, we returned Xinjie, still early, so decided to drive up back way in the south, Luchun, around 100 km away, was set as our destination. |
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| View of rice terraces on our way of hiking | Hani women pasturing their buffalo | |
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| Young mama with her beautiful and lovely daughter | A friendly Yi woman, posed happily for my shooting | |
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DAY 09 It happened to the the market day of Luchun, very crowded and colorful occasion, Hani people here were even more different, their costume, especially hat looked more elegant. we made an impromptu decision to spend several hours in their market before departure, when I tried to take pictures, people tried to dodge, they were very shy. Later it's long drive, via Jiangcheng of Pu'er Area, we stopped at a small town on the way, from where it's around 200 km from Jinghong, we would be home the next day! |
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Hani women in Luchun, with elegant headgears |
Crowded market in Luchun, they were Hani people |
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| Different branch of Hani in the Market of Luchun | Different branch of Hani in the Market of Luchun | |
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DAY 10 Driving back to Jinghong via Menglun. View was getting more and more tropical, we saw stilted houses of ethnic people, a lot of rubber plantations and rainforest, air became humid and hot, everything was so familiar, we were home! |
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Rainforest on the way back to Jinghong |
Tropical scenery on the way back to Jinghong |
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Traditional stilted village houses in Xishuangbanna |
Dai, the main ethnic group of Xishuangbanna |
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Trip was tiring, maybe because I was the only driver, had to drive all the time, and my old van didn't function well, calculation showed that we traveled over 2000 km in 10 days, but it was absolutely wonderful, we enjoyed breathtaking view of rice terraces, mountains, valleys and rivers, visited colorful and exotic markets of ethnic minority people in countryside. It's very ethnic and scenic journey! RELATED TOUR |
