The terraces
Things to Do at the Longji Rice Terraces
Five numbered platforms, two valleys, a ropeway, a tea you make yourself and a village lunch worth sitting down for. Here is what fills a day on the hill, and how long each part takes.
The five numbered viewpoints
The scenic area numbers its platforms and so do the signs, which makes them easy to navigate once you know what the numbers mean. Two sit above Ping’an and three ring the Jinkeng bowl.
Nine Dragons and Five Tigers — Ping’an No. 1
The long view along the ridge, and the one most people picture when they picture Longji. Twenty to thirty minutes up from the village gate.
Seven Stars with the Moon — Ping’an No. 2
A tighter, rounder composition than No. 1, looking into the curve of the terraces. Another twenty minutes along the contour.
West Hill Music — Jinkeng No. 1
The highest point in the scenic area at about 1,180 metres, and the place to be at sunrise if you have stayed the night.
Thousand Layers to the Heaven — Jinkeng No. 2
Straight down the steepest stack of paddies on the mountain. Closest of the three to Dazhai village.
Golden Buddha Peak — Jinkeng No. 3
The widest landscape of the five, level once you are there, and the top station of the ropeway. The one to choose if steps are the problem.
How long each walk takes
| Walk | Time | Climb | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ping’an No. 1 platform and back | 1 hr 30 | 20–30 min of steps | A short visit, or a late arrival |
| Ping’an, both platforms | about 3 hrs | The same climb, then level | The standard half day on the hill |
| Ping’an to Guzhuang and back | about 2 hrs | Level along the contour | Villages rather than viewpoints |
| Jinkeng by ropeway, then the top loop | 2–3 hrs | Almost none | Anyone who would rather not climb |
| Jinkeng No. 2 to No. 1 to No. 3 | about 3 hrs 30 | 40 min up, then rolling | The best walking in the scenic area |
| Dazhai over the ridge to Ping’an | about 5 hrs | Sustained both ways | A whole day, and a three-day ticket |
Times at an unhurried pace with stops, from the village car park in each case.
Find a tour with time for the walk you want
Walking Ping’an: two platforms in three hours
Start at the village gate and climb to No. 1. It takes twenty to thirty minutes on dry stone steps, with the terraces opening below you the whole way. There are tea stalls near the top.
From there the traverse to No. 2 runs along the contour and takes another twenty to thirty minutes, most of it level. Come back down through the village and you have walked three hours including stops, which is what the better half-day tours allow.
If the climb is the problem rather than the distance, the buggy covers the lower section for CNY 30 one way, CNY 50 return and leaves you the good part.
Walking Jinkeng: the No. 2 to No. 1 traverse
Dazhai’s three platforms make a loop and the classic order is up to No. 2, along to No. 1 and down past No. 3. Allow about forty minutes to the first, an hour on the traverse, and an hour to come off the hill.
It is the best walking in the scenic area and the least crowded. The catch is that Jinkeng is 23 kilometres past the gate, so a day that does it properly has little room for anything else.
Taking the ropeway instead
The Dazhai ropeway runs from the car park to Golden Buddha Peak in about twenty minutes, and the cabins run continuously rather than to a timetable, so a queue that looks long moves quickly.
It costs extra and is not covered by the gate ticket. One day tour bundles the return trip into its fare, which is the tidiest way to do it if you would rather not deal with another window.
The ropeway day, with the fare settled in advance
Eight and a half hours from Guilin, the scenic-area ticket and the return ropeway both in the price, and three and a half hours at Jinkeng Dazhai.
Making oil tea with a Zhuang family
Oil tea is the local drink and it is savoury rather than sweet: tea leaves fried with ginger and salt, pounded in a wooden trough, then hot water poured over the paste and served with puffed rice and peanuts. Households make it several times a day.
One day tour is built around making it yourself in a village kitchen, alongside a Zhuang lunch. It is the closest thing here to being inside a house rather than looking at one.
The Red Yao long-hair performance
At Huangluo Yao Village the women stage a performance of combing and coiling their hair, with singing and dress. It is ticketed at about CNY 80 per person and it is not part of the gate ticket.
Opinion divides on it, and honestly so: one reviewer here says it was not worth the money to them, while others found it the memorable part of the day. One tour includes it in the fare so the decision is already made.
Bamboo rice, and what else to eat
Village lunches here are built around bamboo rice — rice cooked inside a length of green cane over a fire, so it takes the scent of the wood. It usually arrives with smoked pork, a chicken dish and whatever vegetable is in season.
Several tours include that meal in the fare and the rest leave you to the village restaurants, where you pay on the day. Bring cash: cards are rarely accepted past the gate.
Where the photographs come from
The postcard frames are No. 1 at Ping’an in the afternoon and West Hill Music at first light. Cloud settles in the valleys overnight and burns off from the top down, so the half hour after sunrise is the one photographers stay overnight for.
Grey days are better than they look: the contrast flattens, the water in the paddies comes forward, and the platforms are close to empty. What the light does month by month is set out on the best time to visit.
What the day looks like, in order
Arrive and buy
Tickets at the entrance gate, or already in your fare. This is where the two valleys divide.
Up to the village
By car, shuttle or buggy. From the village gate everything else is on foot or on the ropeway.
The first platform
Twenty to thirty minutes of stone steps at Ping’an, or twenty minutes in a cabin at Dazhai.
Lunch and the second
Village restaurants sit between the platforms, so the meal and the walk fit together.
Fitting all of that into one visit is what separates a four-hour tour from a two-hour one. Every option is listed with its hours on the hill on Longji Rice Terraces guided tours.