We were up early this morning as we were going to Longsheng - an area famous for it's 800 year old rice terraces. We had taken a tour as it is quite complex to get there. The tour bus turned up at 8:30 and did the rounds of the hotels picking everybody else up. We arrived at our first destination about 11:00. This was a hill village populated with a minority group - the Yao. This group is famous because the women only cut their hair twice - once when they get to 18 and at the time of marriage. They wear their hair in what looks like an Indian turban (this also includes the bits they have cut off). Their hair is always black - they wash it in rice water that they have kept for a week - this prevents greying but doesn't enhance the smell! As well as looking at these women, we had the normal tour group wedding ceremony which ended up with the women pinching the men's backsides - apparently the harder the pinch the more in love! We then went up the mountain in small minibuses - the road was too twisty for anything else. This dropped us at the entry to the valley and we had another hours walk up to the village. The scenery was stunning - very clear, lots of mountain streams and everywhere, rice terraces cut into the steep hillside. It is amazing to think that all of these were built by hand 800 years ago. We stopped for lunch at the village and had the local delicacy - rice and chicken cooked inside bamboo - something different. Then it was a climb up to the summit to have a great view over everything. By this time the cloud was coming in which took the edge of the views somewhat. Needless to say, the walk down was a lot quicker than the one going up.