Earth
The Rice Terraces Of China
Updated March 19, 2019
These thousand-year-old terraces in China make it possible to grow rice on steep slopes.
They are also very beautiful.
Honghe Hani rice terraces are located in southern Yunnan in China. The terraces cascade down mountain slopes along the Hong River and were constructed by the Hani people over a thousand years ago.[1]
The Hani people is one of China's many ethnic minorities. They began building the rice terraces after migrating to the area 1,300 years ago.[1]
The terraces' beauty has made them a popular tourist destination, especially for photographers.
The rice terraces get their water from a complex system of channels that bring water down from the surrounding forested mountaintops.[1]
In some places there are as many as 3,000 terraces from top to bottom.[1]
Thanks to its high cultural value, Honghe Hani rice terraces became a World Heritage Site in 2013.
The World Heritage covers 166 km2 (64 mi2),[1]
but that is only a small part of the rice terraces' total area.
Within the World Heritage are 82 small villages built above the rice terraces, just below the mountain top forests.[1]
Each household usually farms one or two 'plots' of the rice terraces.[1]
Most of the world's varieties of rice are grown in flooded fields.
The primary crop in Honghe Hani is red rice,[1] which is red-colored, rich in fibers and has a somewhat nutty flavor.
Reference
[1]
"Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces". UNESCO. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
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