HOW TO...DRAGON'S BACKBONE
There’s very little info on take a day, one-night, or multinight trip to DB so here’s a breakdown of my one nighter.
TO DB: Getting there is a breeze - express minibuses leave from the Guilin Train Station at 9am, 12noon, and 3pm. The ride costs 50Y and takes 2.5 hours to reach Dazhai. The minibus stops at the DB ticket office and a representative boards the bus to sell the 100Y entrance ticket.
If you only are interested in a day trip there’s plenty of Guilin based operators and your hostel/hotel can assist with the arrangement. The price my hostel offered was 300Y - which included transportation in a six person van and the entrance ticket. The trip left at 9am spent 3-4 hours at Dazhai then returned to Guilin by early evening.
HIKING OPTIONS: There are two distinct rice terrace areas (Dazhai - east and Ping’An - west) separated by a six k hike or a 45 minute ride - its a windy road up and down to both terrace parking lots thus the drive is a slow 20K or so. If you’re doing a day hike you will not be able to do both areas. My hostel offered a through hike between the two areas but in order to complete this in the time allotted you’d only be able to do the through hike and not to the Dazhai viewing areas.
The “complete” hike - all viewing areas in both terraces and between the terraces passing through Zhongliu Village takes about 7-8 hours. If you catch the 9am bus it’s possible to make it to Ping’An in a single day, if you catch the 12noon bus it would really be pushing it to make it to Ping’An and you’ll probably need (and want) to spend the night in Zhongliu. The rice terraces are on the eastern/sun facing side of the mountain so once the sun goes behind the mountain it gets dark fast - in early June it was dark by 7.
You are probably better off starting in Dazhai and walking west to Ping’An. This seemed more downhill - there’s still uphill stretches but one part was downhill for at least 30 minutes and would have been brutal if you were walking uphill from Ping’An.
Dazhai to Zhongliu took just under seven hours including stops at Dazhai Terrace viewing areas 1 and 2. Viewing area 3 is a bit a ways off and if you wanted to see that without taking the cable car you’d want to catch the 9am shuttle. I caught the 12noon shuttle which not only allowed me to sleep in but also meant I wasn’t hiking the trail with other day trip tourists.
In Dazhai the impressive viewing areas are off the main trail and involve 30 - 45 minutes to the viewing area and back tracking. In Ping’An the viewing areas are along the trail.
WHERE TO SLEEP: Dazhai and Ping’An have a high concentration of accommodation and restaurants although the area to stay in Dazhai is Tiantou, a village further up the terrace. Both are kind of commercial but Ping’An is much more commercial because it’s closer to Guilin and receives a higher volume of day trippers.
If you’re spending only one night and doing the through hike then stay in Zhongliu. This is the stay with a local, in a local’s house (kind-of), eating dinner with a local experience you are looking for. When you arrive in Zhongliu ask around and someone will have a room for you. The place I stayed at certainly wasn’t a hotel but the house did have multiple rooms available for hikers. For 100Y I had a room and a meal (more food than I could eat) and also a beer. I was also able to take a hot water shower and watch Chinese soap operas with the family - it was still rustic but more modern amenities than I expected.
THROUGH HIKE NOTES: The trail between Dazhai and Ping’An is not the stone capped, sure footed trail that’s found in the two main terrace areas. It’s a noticable change immediately once you leave the terrace areas - there stops being sign posts and when the path splits in multiple directions you need to use your best judgment or wait until a local walks along.
The trail doesn’t have the grand terrace views but I thought was much more rewarding - instead of walking around and over the rice terraces you walk through the terraces on the same path as the locals. There are plenty of terraces to see between the two areas, although not as impressive from above, but half the hike is also through a forest with no views other than the trees.
In the morning there’s a mist and in addition to wet, slippery rocks, your legs and shoes will also be drenched by the end of the hike. From Zhongliu its about a one and a half hour hike to the start of Ping’An terrace and fortunately Ping’An’s viewing areas aren’t off the main trail the way they are in Dazhai. Also the morning was very hazy and the views in Ping’An were pretty bad - I had to wait for an hour for the fog to clear to see the terraces below.
BACK TO GUILIN: This is a crapshot. There are a few people waiting at the Ping’An gate offering “assistance” but at much higher rates then the arrival cost. There is suppose to be an express minibus - but I think it leaves from the ticket office at 9am, 12:30pm, and 3:30pm - so you’d need to take a taxi or private vehicle to the ticket office…I think. My experience was I said I was waiting for an express minibus and I paid 50Y to the terraces and intended to pay the same amount back - eventually the “assistance” at the gate agreed to the 50Y rate and a guy who was a day trip driver drove me back down to the DB entrance / ticket office area. A Chinese tour bus pulled up and I hopped on. This definitely wasn’t “legit” but it did cost 50Y and I was heading back to the Guilin train station.
Worst case scenario buses leave from Ping’An every two hours, starting at 9 (?), but go to Longsheng then to Guilin - which is a three hours plus trip. You could hop off the bus midway to Longsheng and catch a bus already on the way to Guilin - this would save about 30 minutes if timed correctly or you could be waiting at the bus station waiting for the bus you just hopped off of to return on its way to Guilin - Longsheng is north of DB so the bus heads up there before turning around and heading south to Guilin.
TO DB: Getting there is a breeze - express minibuses leave from the Guilin Train Station at 9am, 12noon, and 3pm. The ride costs 50Y and takes 2.5 hours to reach Dazhai. The minibus stops at the DB ticket office and a representative boards the bus to sell the 100Y entrance ticket.
If you only are interested in a day trip there’s plenty of Guilin based operators and your hostel/hotel can assist with the arrangement. The price my hostel offered was 300Y - which included transportation in a six person van and the entrance ticket. The trip left at 9am spent 3-4 hours at Dazhai then returned to Guilin by early evening.
HIKING OPTIONS: There are two distinct rice terrace areas (Dazhai - east and Ping’An - west) separated by a six k hike or a 45 minute ride - its a windy road up and down to both terrace parking lots thus the drive is a slow 20K or so. If you’re doing a day hike you will not be able to do both areas. My hostel offered a through hike between the two areas but in order to complete this in the time allotted you’d only be able to do the through hike and not to the Dazhai viewing areas.
The “complete” hike - all viewing areas in both terraces and between the terraces passing through Zhongliu Village takes about 7-8 hours. If you catch the 9am bus it’s possible to make it to Ping’An in a single day, if you catch the 12noon bus it would really be pushing it to make it to Ping’An and you’ll probably need (and want) to spend the night in Zhongliu. The rice terraces are on the eastern/sun facing side of the mountain so once the sun goes behind the mountain it gets dark fast - in early June it was dark by 7.
You are probably better off starting in Dazhai and walking west to Ping’An. This seemed more downhill - there’s still uphill stretches but one part was downhill for at least 30 minutes and would have been brutal if you were walking uphill from Ping’An.
Dazhai to Zhongliu took just under seven hours including stops at Dazhai Terrace viewing areas 1 and 2. Viewing area 3 is a bit a ways off and if you wanted to see that without taking the cable car you’d want to catch the 9am shuttle. I caught the 12noon shuttle which not only allowed me to sleep in but also meant I wasn’t hiking the trail with other day trip tourists.
In Dazhai the impressive viewing areas are off the main trail and involve 30 - 45 minutes to the viewing area and back tracking. In Ping’An the viewing areas are along the trail.
WHERE TO SLEEP: Dazhai and Ping’An have a high concentration of accommodation and restaurants although the area to stay in Dazhai is Tiantou, a village further up the terrace. Both are kind of commercial but Ping’An is much more commercial because it’s closer to Guilin and receives a higher volume of day trippers.
If you’re spending only one night and doing the through hike then stay in Zhongliu. This is the stay with a local, in a local’s house (kind-of), eating dinner with a local experience you are looking for. When you arrive in Zhongliu ask around and someone will have a room for you. The place I stayed at certainly wasn’t a hotel but the house did have multiple rooms available for hikers. For 100Y I had a room and a meal (more food than I could eat) and also a beer. I was also able to take a hot water shower and watch Chinese soap operas with the family - it was still rustic but more modern amenities than I expected.
THROUGH HIKE NOTES: The trail between Dazhai and Ping’An is not the stone capped, sure footed trail that’s found in the two main terrace areas. It’s a noticable change immediately once you leave the terrace areas - there stops being sign posts and when the path splits in multiple directions you need to use your best judgment or wait until a local walks along.
The trail doesn’t have the grand terrace views but I thought was much more rewarding - instead of walking around and over the rice terraces you walk through the terraces on the same path as the locals. There are plenty of terraces to see between the two areas, although not as impressive from above, but half the hike is also through a forest with no views other than the trees.
In the morning there’s a mist and in addition to wet, slippery rocks, your legs and shoes will also be drenched by the end of the hike. From Zhongliu its about a one and a half hour hike to the start of Ping’An terrace and fortunately Ping’An’s viewing areas aren’t off the main trail the way they are in Dazhai. Also the morning was very hazy and the views in Ping’An were pretty bad - I had to wait for an hour for the fog to clear to see the terraces below.
BACK TO GUILIN: This is a crapshot. There are a few people waiting at the Ping’An gate offering “assistance” but at much higher rates then the arrival cost. There is suppose to be an express minibus - but I think it leaves from the ticket office at 9am, 12:30pm, and 3:30pm - so you’d need to take a taxi or private vehicle to the ticket office…I think. My experience was I said I was waiting for an express minibus and I paid 50Y to the terraces and intended to pay the same amount back - eventually the “assistance” at the gate agreed to the 50Y rate and a guy who was a day trip driver drove me back down to the DB entrance / ticket office area. A Chinese tour bus pulled up and I hopped on. This definitely wasn’t “legit” but it did cost 50Y and I was heading back to the Guilin train station.
Worst case scenario buses leave from Ping’An every two hours, starting at 9 (?), but go to Longsheng then to Guilin - which is a three hours plus trip. You could hop off the bus midway to Longsheng and catch a bus already on the way to Guilin - this would save about 30 minutes if timed correctly or you could be waiting at the bus station waiting for the bus you just hopped off of to return on its way to Guilin - Longsheng is north of DB so the bus heads up there before turning around and heading south to Guilin.