This is an interesting region of Yunnan south of Kunming, towards the Vietnamese border. Many many minorities and relative few Han Chinese, particularly as you get towards Yuanyang. Most people are speaking their own minority languages (Hani predominates), and those who speak Mandarin don’t speak it very understandably, so for Mandarin-speaking travelers, your language “advantage” over rookie foreigners is considerably diminished! Access to the area requires road travel, either by private car or bus. No other options—no train and no airports. Using Kunming as a launching and return point, which is the most logical for travelers, you can consider a minimum time to do this as a “module” of 4 days including travel time. (It’s also possible to visit this area if heading to/from Kunming to Laos or Vietnam overland, but I won’t get into that here.)

If you are round-tripping from Kunming and not using a private car/private tour but are taking public transportation, I recommend leaving all excess luggage (nonvaluables) at Left Luggage in Kunming and heading south with minimum stuff—I parked my locked rollaboard at the Train Station (RMB 3 per day per bag and you get a claim check receipt) since upon my return to Kunming, I had an outbound train scheduled. You can also leave at Left Luggage at Kunming Long-Distance bus station. All I took with me was my daypack (with computer and valuables inside), and a very small cheap gym bag picked up the night before at a street vendor with a couple of clothes changes and minimal toiletries.

Kunming Bus Stations: In 2010 or 2011, Kunming moved nearly all the long-distance buses to various new stations on the outskirts of the city. So, discard all older information on the internet which tells you that long-distance buses leave from right by the Train Station—it ain’t so anymore! For Jianshui and Yuanyang and points south (including Laos and Vietnam border crossings), buses leave from the South Bus Station “Nanbu” which is a long way out—and an RMB 35 cab ride. Arriving at the bus station by cab, I purchased a ticket for the next bus out to Jianshui leaving 20 minutes later, for RMB 81. During the day there are 1-2 buses per hour leaving for Jianshui, so no need to fool with advance purchasing. The route is mostly expressway, with a comfort break about half-way, at one of the more disgusting outhouses I encountered on this trip. Enuf said! (Mini-Rant: It irritated me that all the public bus drivers seem to stop at this point, mainly so they can wash their buses down—when for passengers’ sake, there are plenty of better places that could be used as a comfort break nearby. Rant over.) Total time to Jianshui was 3.5 hours, a pretty easy trip. Taxi outside took 5 minutes to get to “center” of town by the Old town. I did not have a hotel reservation for Jianshui, just 3-4 hotel names and addresses, and a rough sketch map of the town. You won’t find international-branded hotels in this place, but comfortable accommodation is available. After a short walk in the old town from where the taxi driver dropped me, I found my target and staff showed me a small but new and clean room for RMB 130. Very friendly but no English spoken.

Jianshui is a relatively small Chinese city with a small but good old town architecture area that has not been “tarted up” for mass tourism. I used it as a stopover point between Kunming and the Yuanyang terraces. Two-three leisurely hours’ walk around Jianshui old town is enough to get the flavor and hit the highlights. The locals have a lot of interesting activity going around the Old Gate, the old guys with their singing birds, some musicians, etc. I did not visit the main feature of the old town, the Confucius Temple (RMB 60 entry) as I’ve seen enough Confucian temples to last a lifetime and they are mostly the same. Also skipped Zhilin Temple which is on their little tourist signage (nicely signed streets and wayfinding, BTW), in favor of going into an uncelebrated but rather nice Tianjun Temple where 5 old guys were practicing their music on traditional instruments. If they weren’t pros, they were gifted amateurs and I enjoyed a free concert in a peaceful courtyard for 15 minutes or so. The Zhu Family Home andGarden (RMB 50) might be interesting to some and it is also a boutique hotel though a little pricey. I recommend this friendly little town for a quick stopover, ideally a day if you can manage, as there are also a couple of attractions outside the town which time and threatening weather didn’t allow me to see (Swallows Cave and the Old Arched Bridge).

My intent to get up early and take morning photos around the town was derailed by weather—it had poured rain during the night and was still sprinkling. Instant plan change to check out, find a taxi to the bus station and get on the road asap to Yuanyang. Got an immediate bus out which was a local and rather “colorful” bus—no farm animals though. These smaller 20-person buses go the “old route” to Yuanyang which is direct and over a winding, unsealed road through various villages. It can be bumpy. I stopped smoking on the bus by telling the would-be puffers about my serious lung problem and that I could die (also throwing the window open and gasping for air). Smokes went out--nobody wanted to be responsible for killiing the foreigner. Takes 3 hours to get to “lower” Yuanyang (Nansha) which is a busy little town and bus station. After a 20-25 minute stop there, another 45 minutes to get to the real target, “upper” Yuanyang (Xinjie) which is the staging base for the Terraces. Arrived at Yuanyang Xinjie town around noon. Again, I had no reservation but was firmly settled on two parameters:
a) I did not want to stay out at the Terraces in the villages themselves, though this is a highly recommended option for those who want a lot of peace and quiet, who can deal with fairly simple lodging and food, and who want to hike a bit in the villages and terraces. This is a personal preference thing.
b) I did not want to stay at the “prime” hotel lodging available—the Yunti Hotel which is overpriced, sits in the bend so the town’s main busy road loops around it, and had onsite construction going on. Instead, I walked out of the bus station and down the street to the little town’s pedestrian “square” and spotted the Yunti Shenjie Hotel which looked OK, checked out their offered room for RMB 100, very decent with ensuite, and was set up. There are not a lot of good lodging options in this town, though with a bit more development, this will likely change. In the off-season, walking-in is possible. During Chinese major holidays, the place is packed out and particularly with photographers.

By good fortune, the regional market happened to be at Xinjie that day, and it was mass of activity and color, with all the local minorities from various regional villages in town (in full dress regalia) to shop and trade and socialize. Some incredibly good photo opportunities were taken advantage of. Noted some key useful places: couple of restaurants, the bakery, the internet shop (wangba), etc. Important: in Yuanyang, there are no ATM’s that will take foreign cards, and no bank will do foreign currency exchange—so you must come with all the cash RMB you will need. I have heard the closest place for foreign card ATM/forex is Gejiu city and that is 1.5 hours away by bus.

Next task was to find local transportation to get to my targets during my preferred time frames: 1) The Laohuzui Rice Terrace later that day, for the sunset views. 2) The Duoyishu and Bada Terraces for the following morning, including sunrise at Duoyishu. The layout of the area is such that from Xinjie to each of these areas, is approximately 45-60 minutes’ drive each way. My sunset and sunrise requirements dictated that the cheap public minivans that gather in the town to shuttle villagers back and forth, weren’t going to work since they weren’t running to my time frames. Choice of local private transport then becomes one of two options: a) Bargain with a taxi for off-meter flat rate. b) Travel agency. At the Yunti Hotel complex, I spotted a local agent office who offered to set me up for both that day and next day with a car and private driver for total of RMB 300. That’s basically RMB 75 x 4 trip segments at an hour per segment, plus waiting time. I doubted I could do much better with a taxi driver bargaining session, so I went with convenience and it was all a done deal. Things were falling into place much more easily than I expected. Meeting time with driver was set for 16:00 and return anywhere from 19:00-20:00, so I went out to kill a bit of time, looking around and making a sketch map of Xinjie for future reference (internet map resources on this place are pretty slim pickings).

At 16:00, driver and car showed up. Actually, a decent little minivan with higher clearance than a standard car/taxi, which would prove to be very wise since the main road between town and terraces has a nasty 3-4 km stretch where it’s being reconstructed. (Heads-up if you will be in Yuanyang before completion around February/March 2012). We arrived at Laohuzui Terrace just after 17:00, entry fee payable there at RMB 30. As a UNESCO site, it’s well-kept with no tackiness, and good paths to the lower viewing platform (I didn’t go, too many steps), and the upper viewing platform, enough for my needs. Not too many other tourists around, a small Chinese tour group or two. Walked out to the overlook and....oh my God...the professional photos I’ve seen on the internet are spot on. These things are stupendous. And my timing was good, as the weather had cleared up and there was no rain or fog (fog can be a real problem at Yuanyang when trying to view the terraces). And a lovely clear sky and dropping sun. The harvest had been completed and the fields already flooded with water for the winter, so the photo opportunity was perfect. A good number of the other Chinese tourists there had serious cameras and tripods. If you have a tripod, this is one place to consider bringing it. I was one of the last to leave before closing, and we got back to town a bit after 7 pm. Compared to Beijing, sunset is a bit later down in these parts for any given time of year.

Next morning was up very early for a 05:30 pickup. Unlike previous day, there was next to no traffic on the roads. At the turnoff outside town for the terraces, the only thing open was....the ticket booth! Driver stopped so I could pay my RMB 60 entrance fee (for two terraces) and on we went, caravanning with a couple of other cars and minibuses also doing the same as me. Arrived at Duoyishu around 06:30 and waited. Duoyishu viewing area has level after level of viewing platforms, all well done so that maximum number of photographers can get a good view without getting in each other’s way. Also an enclosed lounge area, decent bathrooms, etc. Clearly there are benefits to having UNESCO status and keep the schlockiness out. And the entry fee does go to maintain the place, and maintain it well. Another 2-3 dozen people showed up with cameras and tripods, but plenty of room for all. As the sun came up slowly, oh my goodness—words cannot express the feeling when you see these Terraces just come slowly to life, as the light starts making the reflections on the water glow. Spent about an hour there taking various sequences as the light got stronger and higher. At the risk of sounding corny, it really was a magical moment (and cynical, jaded traveler that I am, I don’t impress easily.)

After that, driver drove me back to Bada Terrace site, though first we had to make a stop at an intervening rather large village where he had to make a stop at his house/shop. Interesting village, with every shophouse having something fascinating going on: this one had a whole cow that was being butchered; in the next the guys had a still and were making moonshine whiskey, in the one after that a group was arguing over lottery ticket numbers. Very entertaining and not on the planned “tour.” We got moving again and went to the Bada Terraces which are a bit different with an access path and simple lookouts, but still well done. Bada was interesting because at the time I went, its terraces were in different stages of preparation: harvest completed and flooded on the lower parts, harvest completed and brown earth being prepped in the middle part (no water), and harvest still being finished at the top parts. I was struck by how each of the Terrace areas looked a bit different from the others. My driver also stopped at some signposted lookouts for other minor terrace areas, where there is no entrance fee to gawk, just nice views. Due to fatigue, I passed on an opportunity to stop at the Qingkou Hani Folk Village. I thought it was slightly contrived, and at any rate I’ve seen the real deal Hani (also known as Akha in Thailand and Burma) villages elsewhere. Got back to Xinjie about 10 am and said goodbye to driver and travel agent, then bought an outbound bus ticket (actually, a pair of tickets) to Kunming for following morning, and poked around town, explored, took more photos, and spent time at the internet cafe. (Yuanyang was the only place on my trip where the hotel had no Ethernet or wifi access in the room.) Found two independent old Dutch ladies wandering around and joined them for dinner at the little Sichuan place next to hotel—cheap and tasty. We had a scream of a time talking about our China travel foibles. Other than a British couple I saw wandering around the square, these were the only foreigners I saw during my two days at Yuanyang. But apparently a French guy was wandering around somewhere, the Dutch ladies had spoken with him earlier.

Bus next morning to Kunming at 09:00. Because the journey was so long, I wanted more space and comfort and decided to buy myself and my bags a pair of seats, even though it mean spending an extra RMB 136. This proved to be a very wise decision, as the bus was absolutely full up. This is the only direct bus (though it does stop at Yuanyang Nansha and Jianshui to let passengers on/off) in the day to Kunming. There are two late afternoon buses but they are sleeper-type (which I don’t do myself and don’t recommend). The British couple I'd seen the previous day were the only other foreigners on this bus. The overall trip back to Kunming took just over 7 hours, but using a different route via Gejiu that was excellent road and expressway nearly all the way. (And yes...we stopped again at that horrid outhouse for a comfort stop and to give the bus a bath. Grrr.) It was raining in Kunming, so my luck with perfect weather at Yuanyang had now run out. Hopped on a waiting local bus heading directly for the train station for RMB 5, saving a bunch versus a taxi. Poor dinner at station, bailed my rollaboard out of Left Luggage, then went inside station to wait for the 22:00 train to Lijiang.

Bottom line: This is a terrific Yunnan excursion if you can get lucky with the weather and not stuck with fog. Research conditions at the terraces for the time of year you plan to go: they only grow one rice crop a year and the stages the terraces go through, will be fairly predictable starting late fall/winter (water/flooded), early spring (water/green shoots), late spring (full green growth), late summer/early fall (yellowing/ripening, harvest). The only lousy time to go would be between harvest and flooding, which I estimate might be much of October. There are internet resources out there showing photos taken at different times of year. Summer is rainy season so be aware of that. Do not try to rush this trip, one day too many is probably better than one day too short, as it gives you a cushion in case of a foggy day, and at any rate there are plenty of villages and small towns of interest to explore, that never make it into the guidebooks.

Cost of Excursion ex-Kunming from Kunming Rail Station roundtrip:
--Public Transport: KM taxi to bus station (35) + bus to Jianshui (81) + taxis Jianshui (6 + 5) + bus to Yuanyang Xinjie (35) + double/pair of bus tkts to Kunming (136 x 2 = 272) + local KM bus (5) = 439
--Cost of Private Driver in Yuanyang for Terraces = 300
--Entry Fees: 50 (Zhu, Jianshui) + 30 + 60 (Terraces) = 140
--Hotel 3 nights: 130 + 100 + 100 = 330. Food, snacks, water, etc = 254
--Total 4 days: RMB 1463