Although 92% of China’s population is the majority Han ethnicity there are a number of minority cultures that are often located in remote areas. Some of these minority people live in beautiful Zhuang, Yao and Dong villages in the mountains of southern China where time seems to have stood still. There are often no roads to these villages, and you must hike in an hour or more to get there. The terrain is steep and dramatic, and the villages are nestled gracefully in to the mountainsides. The farmers tend beautiful rice crops on terraces that have been in operation for generations. Intricate irrigation systems feed the fields and create the constant sound of moving water.
The wooden houses here generally have a ground floor dedicated to stock, a middle floor for human habitation and a top floor for storing harvests. The weathered wood and grey tile roofs make the buildings seems like they have just grown out of the soil of the mountain.
This is my favorite post! The first picture from Mountain Villages in Southern China is something my parents would immediately think of when they hear “retirement.” It's far away from competition, politics, and… maybe pollution?
did you climb to the roof to get that picture?
That picture was taken from the window of the room where I was staying.
Yes, it did seem far away from all of those things. In most parts of China we were constantly asked to show our passports–certainly when we checked in to lodgings. They asked for nothing here. I asked why and was told that there is an old Chinese saying, “The mountain is high and the emperor is far away”.