Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces / Yuanyang Rice Terraces

The Yuanyang Rice Terraces are to be found in the Honghe Area in southern Yunnan, around 7-8 hours drive form Kunming. Inhabited by the local Hani minority, the UNESCO registered area boasts 16603 hectares and 82 villages and is located in the area of Honghe or Hong River / Red River, which has its name from the color of the red Yunnan soil, and the Ailao Mountains. The vast part of the local economy is constituted from red rice farming, fishing, cattle, duck and buffalo farming and more and more tourism. Despite the 1300 year old Yuanyang Rice Terraces are the largest of its kind, it’s still less known than the Longjititian Rice Terrace area in Northern Guangxi. The local Hani people believe in an a sort of animistic religious system and worship sun, moon, mountains, rivers, forests and other natural phenomena and also have Shamans who take the role as villages priest, doctor and wise man. They are known for their mushroom houses which are built from earth walls with wood and bamboo and the roof is made from straw. The ground floor is for the livestock whereas the first floor is for the family and the second floor is the storage room.

The Yuanyang Rice Terraces offer truly amazing possibilities for landscape photographers. Best time is December until April when the rice terraces are filled with water. However, also the other seasons offer great views, especially in August, when the crops are long and green. We strongly recommend to rent a car with driver to get there, as the journey from Kunming takes up to 8 hours and in the area you need a car to see the different rice terraces areas. First you need to drive to Nanshan and from there it takes another hour to get to Xinjiezhen, which is the entrance area. From there drive up to

Duoyishu which can be considered as the core area of the Honghe Han Rice Terraces. With a few villages, some of them still have the traditional mushroom houses, you can find here some decent accommodation, although don’t expect luxury, most of them are basic guesthouses but for most people it’s more than enough for a few nights. Hiddenchina.net knows the best hostels and we can find you truly amazing places with spectacular sunrise view. Duoyishu is also best for sunrise shots, although we know a secret photography spot, which is also great for sunset shots. Another area for sunset shots is Bada, which has two main platforms to enjoy the view and one along the road. Beware of Chinese Photo enthusiast groups which come already in the early afternoon and occupy with their expensive carbon tripods the best spots to get their sunset shots hours later. Laohuzui offers the probably most spectacular view, as you have form the two platforms a bird’s eye view over the rice terraces. However, also in this area we know the more hidden places form where you can take your shots away from the crowds. Shengcun is sort of the largest village apart from Xinjie and in the mornings there is always a small local market where the locals buy and sell their merchandise and usually wear the traditional Hani costumes. A nice place for portrait shooting, although especially the elders don’t like to be photographed, so better take a long and low light capable lens along. Near Shengcun there is another of our secret spots where you can take impressive sunset pics from above a steep rock cliff overlooking the rice terraces.