Longji Rice Terraces in Longsheng

Longji Rice Terraces ('Dragon Backbone' Rice Terraces) in Longsheng County are a breathtaking agricultural wonder nestled in Guilin's remote mountainous region. The rice terraces encompass three main areas, including the Ping'an Village, Dazhai Village, and Ancient Zhuang Village.

Hiking through the rice terraces is the main way to marvel at the fantastic scenery. Every year, thousands of shutterbugs and hikers are attracted by the reflecting water-filled terraces (mainly in May), glowing gold-eared rice fields (from late September to early October), and the magnificent sunrises and sunsets.

Zhuang and Yao villages are scattered throughout the area. You could have chances to visit a local's home, taste local cuisines, join in ethnic festival activities, and learn about unique cultures.

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• Which Rice Terraces Are Best for You?
• Jinkeng Rice Terraces: Longji's Largest
• Hiking Around the Longji Rice Terraces
• Best Times for a Visit: Late May, Late September
• How to Get to Longji Rice Terraces
• Ping'an Rice Terraces: Best Value and Convenience
• Ancient Zhuang Rice Terraces: Less Crowded
• Where to Stay in Longji Rice Terraces?
• What Can Be Combined With Longji Rice Terraces

Which Rice Terraces Are Best for You?

For a day trip, choose the Ping'an Rice Terraces, which offer the perfect balance: a relaxed pace and manageable hiking trails. Immerse yourself in local culture by visiting a local's home to prepare and savor authentic homemade bamboo rice for lunch. Then, take a 2-hour light hike from Ping'an Village to Ancient Zhuang Village to see the stunning terraced landscape unfolding around you.

If time permits and you want to include Ping'an and Jinkeng together, stay one night at Ping'an Village or Dazhai Village. You will be rewarded with breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, and have enough time for deeper exploration by hiking between Ping'an and Jinkeng Rice Terraces for at least 3 hours.

Ping'an Rice Terraces: Best Value and Convenience

Ping'an Rice Terraces

A 2-hour drive from Guilin City can deliver you to the Ping'an Rice Terraces, the first tourism-developed rice terrace area in Longsheng. Perfectly sized for a day trip exploration, Ping'an reveals its full highlights by hiking in just half a day.

Thanks to the relatively concentrated viewpoints, you can enjoy the highlights with less walking and ascending. Well-paved stone and concrete paths make every step effortless and accessible, making it ideal for families with children or seniors.

For a day trip, it takes about one hour to walk from the parking lot to Nine Dragons and Five Tigers. If you want to skip the walk, take a shuttle for about 10 minutes, then just walk for half an hour to Seven Stars Accompany the Moon.

Making bamboo rice in Ping'an Village

Highlights

Seven Stars Accompany the Moon(七星伴月): The landscape consists of seven small terraced domes surrounding a large circular terrace in the center, resembling seven stars and a moon, which is an ethereal and unforgettable photography spot.

Nine Dragons and Five Tigers(九龙五虎): Overlooking from the viewing platform, you can see nine ridges branching off from the main ridge that look like nine dragons bending over to drink from the river. Nearby, five small hills crouch on the ground like five tigers, guarding this land.

Jinkeng Rice Terraces: Longji's Largest

The Jinkeng Rice Terraces are the largest and most majestic of the three, and are also the only area that can be visited by cable car, making them perfect for shutterbugs and sightseers.

Due to the rugged hiking trails and steep stairs, we suggest leaving at least 2 days for hiking all of Jinkeng's highlights. To skip walking, you can opt for a cable car from the parking lot straight to the Golden Buddha Peak Viewing Platform, which is the best choice for seniors and people with disability.

Jinkeng Rice Terraces

Highlights

'West Hill Music' (Xishan Shaoyue 西山韶乐): The highest viewing point on the terraces(altitude 1,180 m; 3,870 ft). Since most published Longji Rice Terraces photos are taken there, it becomes extremely popular during sunrises for the panoramic view of the terraces.

The 'Large-Scale Thousand-Layer Terraces' (Dajie Qianceng Tianti 大界千层天梯): The viewing platform is accessible by car, with most of the route descending stairs, making it an easy climb. We recommend visiting at sunset to see the beautiful rice terraces and the Hongyao villages dotted among them, bathed in the orange sunlight.

'Golden Buddha Peak' (Jinfo Ding 金佛顶): Thanks to the cableway, it is the most popular viewing platform, known for its marvelous sunset scenery. For active visitors, you would need at least an hour hiking from the parking lot to the peak.

Ancient Zhuang Rice Terraces: Less Crowded

After a scenic 5-kilometer (3-mile) hike from Ping'an Village, you will reach Ancient Zhuang Village, the most authentic, proudly preserved Zhuang settlement in Longsheng that is perfect for history enthusiasts.

Unlike other rice terraces, the Ancient Zhuang Rice Terraces are the smallest and least visited, often serving as a peaceful stop on the Ping'an hike. It's not captivated by its fields, but by its unparalleled immersion into ethnic minority heritage. If you are interested in Zhuang culture, farming history, and ethnic minority architecture, visit the local stilt houses and take a brief tour of the Ethnic Minority Museum.

Ancient Zhuang Rice Terraces

Hiking Around the Longji Rice Terraces

For rural scenery lovers, there couldn't be a better choice than to hike around the Longji Rice Terraces. There are many hiking trails between the villages, offering something for everyone from casual hikers to experienced trekkers.

We recommend the following two routes, which offer the best views while being easy to complete, making them suitable for a one- or two-day visit to the Longji Rice Terraces.

However, even completing the easiest route needs a certain level of physical demand. For people with disabilities, we suggest skipping the hiking and visiting Jinkeng Rice Terraces via a cable car and leisurely enjoying the spectacular view.

1. From Ping'an Village to Ancient Zhuang Village

• Length of hike: About 2 hours, around 5 km (3 mi)
• Hiking difficulty: Easy
• Classic route: Ping'an Village – Nine Dragons and Five Tigers – Seven Stars Accompany the Moon – Ancient Zhuang Village Parking Lot

This route offers a good balance of hiking difficulty and iconic views, with fewer tourists and a tranquil rural vibe, making it ideal for day trippers who want to see the best of the terraces in a short period of time.

If you want to skip some walking, take a 15-minute minibus from the Ping'an Village parking lot directly to the Nine Dragons and Five Tigers Viewing Platform, skipping this climbing section to save energy.

2. From Dazhai Village to Ping'an Village

• Length of hike: 5 hours, 17 km (11 mi)
• Hiking difficulty: moderate
• Classic route: Tiantou Zhai – West Hill Music – Thousand-Layer Terraces –Zhongliu Village – Nine Dragons and Five Tigers – Seven Stars Accompany the Moon – Ping'an Village Parking Lot

This route covers two popular areas, allowing you to see the most iconic rice terraces in one go. Get ready to enjoy breathtaking terrace fields vistas, encounter the hospitality of locals, and find inner peace in the wilds.

Starting from Tiantou Village and heading to Ping'an Village, the route has more descending sections, making it a more comfortable walk, which is suitable for active couples and experienced hikers.

It should be noted that the route could be muddy on rainy days, so you'd better mind your step or avoid hiking on rainy days. Some sections are steep, and the uncut stone paths have many twists and turns, which may easily lead to getting lost. We suggest hiking with a local tour guide, who could be helpful to keep you on the right route and to stand by for emergencies.

Where to Stay in Longji Rice Terraces?

Generally speaking, we recommend a round-trip to Guilin city, with a full-day trip to the Longji Rice Terraces. It is not recommended to arrange a Longji day trip on the day of departure to avoid missing the flight or train.

If you're desperate to witness the sunrise or sunset, or want to visit both the Jinkeng and Ping'an Rice Terraces, we recommend staying in either Dazhai or Ping'an Village. Ancient Zhuang Village is mostly hostels or homestays, so accommodations are limited and therefore not recommended.

Ping'an Village

Baike Hotel (family-run boutique hotel): from US$56

Take a 5-minute walk from the Ping'an parking lot to reach it. The rooms of the hotel are spacious and nicely decorated. We suggest choosing a room with a balcony overlooking the rice terraces and setting the alarm for sunrise in the morning. The views are simply magnificent, you can enjoy the scenery while having a black coffee from your balcony.

Rooms of Baike Hotel

Li An Lodge (boutique hotel, local 4-star): from US$206

Li-An Lodge is a wood structure implementing the Chinese building technique of tongue and groove joints without nails. Neighboring Seven Stars Accompany the Moon, it offers magnificent panoramic views of Longsheng's rice terraces. It's one hour's walking from the parking lot to Li An Lodge.

Rooms of Li-An Lodge

Dazhai Village

Longji Panorama House Hotel (family-run hotel, local 3-star): from US$36

Located near the 'West Hill Music' (Xishan Shaoyue Viewing Platform), this hotel offers great panoramic views of Jinkeng Rice Terraces. You can easily admire sunrises and sunsets if your room has a balcony.

However, we suggest traveling light since you would need to take a minibus to the hotel that which has limited space, or take a 2-hour hike to the hotel from the parking lot.

Rooms of Longji Panorama House Hotel

Best Times for a Visit: Late May, Late September

Longji Rice Terraces offer something every month. Among all, late May and late September are ideal periods to take photos and go hiking, since they offer iconic views with pleasant weather.

• Mid-May to early-June: The fields are water-filled before rice is planted, and you can see mirror-like rice fields and glitter in the sun in spring.
• Mid-June to mid-September: During the growing period for the rice, you will see green rice plants filling the paddies like well-crafted carpets.
• Late September to mid-October: You will see layers of golden yellow. Farmers can be seen harvesting the fields from around October 10th to 25th.
• Late-October to April: You will see nothing more than the plain scenery of brown empty fields (and maybe snow during the winter days from December to February).

Water-filled Longji Rice Terraces

The Harvest Season of Longji Terraces

If you want to experience the festive atmosphere of ethnic minorities while enjoying stunning scenery, participating in the Plowing Festival (around mid-May), the Rice Planting Festival (around early June), and the Clothes Drying Festival (around late-June) could bring you unexpected surprises.

• Plowing Festival: Held around mid-May at Ancient Zhuang Rice Terraces, there's an ethnic irrigating ceremony as well as locals plowing water-filled terraces and dragon lanterns, praying to the spirits to bless the whole village with good weather and a good harvest.
• Rice Planting Festival: Held around early-June at Ping'an Rice Terraces, the ethnic transplanting ceremony includes rice planting and a torch show.
• Clothes Drying Festival: Held around late-June at Jinkeng Rice Terraces, this is the most important traditional festival in a year besides the Spring Festival. Every household took out the colorful clothes to dry, making the drying racks and corridors bright and eye-catching.

large-scale bonfire party

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What Can Be Combined With Longji Rice Terraces

Huangluo Yao Village

In the "Village with the Longest Hair in the World", you can tell that most of the scenes are elaborately staged, with local villagers performing long hair demonstrations. You might find it too touristy, so only taking a check-in photo is fine.

Normally, we would not recommend it, especially when you only have a day trip here. As the first stop on most Longji day trips, spending at least 1 hour here may make the rest of your trip feel rushed. It is appropriate to stay at Longji Rice Terraces for at least 2 days to include this spot.

A Long-haired Hongyao Woman is Drying Her Bright Red Clothes.

How to Get to Longji Rice Terraces

From Guilin City

The Longji Rice Terraces are located in Longsheng County, about a two-hour drive from Guilin City. Since you must first arrive in Guilin by plane or high-speed rail, using Guilin as a base for traveling to and from the Longji Rice Terraces is a good option.

It is not recommended to travel by coach due to the long travel distance for around 3 hours one way and the lack of English service. To make a day trip possible or to optimize your rice terraces schedule, travel by taxi, or, which we highly suggest, get a private transfer, can minimize your travel time and improve your travel happiness without the hassles and time pressures.

From Yangshuo County

The Longji Rice Terraces are at least a 4-hour drive away from Yangshuo County. Most taxis are unwilling to travel between Yangshuo and Longji Rice Terraces, leaving you limited choices between coaches or private transfers.

There are only two coaches a day, at 9 AM and 2 PM. Since the one-way journey takes at least 4 hours, making a day trip nearly impossible, which makes a private transfer becomes your prime choice.

Contact us and start planning your journey that is customized according to your interests and needs.

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