Private visit to Longji Rice Terraces and Long Hair Village

One of the better known tourist destinations of Southern China, and indeed the whole of China, Guilin, which is a name that literally means Sweet Osmanthus, is a prefectural city that has a tourism sector driven by one of the best sights in the entire world, the Li River. With a very rich plant life that embodies far more than the dominant Sweet Osmanthus, Guilin is a region of Southern China which is sectioned off from main China by some naturally occurring boundaries, including the Nan Mountains, accounting for the logic behind its prefectural administrative status but this bodes very well for the tourism industry of the region. About a dozen small ethnic groups call Guilin home, which is part of the Guangxi autonomous region, with the Zhuang ethnic group dominating. Guilin is one of the three largest of the Guangxi region, coming in at number three, behind Nanning and Liuzhou.

Huangluo village in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region is home to descendants of the Yao ethnicity. The women here are characterized by their red embroidered dress and their long hair, which is long enough to have their home recognized as the "world's longest hair village" by Guinness World Records.

The Longsheng Rice Terraces ("Dragon's Backbone"), also called the Longji Rice Terraces, are located in the town of Longji in Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Guilin, China. Longji (Dragon's Backbone) Terraced Rice Fields received their name because the rice terraces resemble a dragon's scales, while the summit of the mountain range looks like the backbone of the dragon. In early June, water is pumped over the rice paddies and young plants are transferred to the main terraces.

Ping’an Village has become by far one of the most famous locations to witness and hike up the magnificent Longji Rice Terraces of Longsheng County. It is located about 100 kilometres (62 miles) away from Guilin city and is home to over 50 families, with a population of about 200 people in total. The vast majority of people living in Ping’an are of the Zhuang ethnic minority and so it is sometimes referred to as Ping’an Zhuang Village. These Zhuang locals have been living in this area for over 600 years and their ancestors built the Longji Rice Terraces that are still in use today. These rice terraces stretch up the mountain, from 300 metres up to 1,100 metres above the sea level, and were first built during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), although they were not finished until the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).