Longji Mountain, Guangxi, China

5kim buay p 5:00 PM Sep 12, 2019

Good ride to viewpoint 3
On arrival by bus at Dazhai, we booked the cable car ride both ways. Senior pays 90 yuan both ways while a normal ticket is 100 yuan both ways. The cable car station is next to the bus station. We saw many people hiking up to the cable car station. If the weather is good, I would suggest taking the cable car one way and hike the other way. From the cable car station, we could also walk to Tian Tou Zhai which is a large village at midpoint while Dazhai is a village at the base. We ate lunch of bamboo chicken and bamboo rice at the restaurant up there. There are also some locals offering meals at their place. One must defintely hike here to enjoy the rice terraces. However I noticed that it is more pleasant to walk after 4 pm as the mid day heat can be quite hot. So stay at Dazhai or Tian Tou Zhai if possible to enjoy the experience of this rice terraces.

5Philipthefirst 5:00 PM Jul 3, 2018

Better to stay in Tiantouzhai
Apparently, almost everybody visits Longji Rice Terraces on a day trip, but we spent 3 days there, which is really nice to enjoy the peace & quiet and the sunset & rise. Having done so, we can say that it is much better to stay overnight in Tiantouzhai than in Pingan village (we didn’t stay in Dazhai). In Pingan, you hardly have views on the terraces from any hotel (except maybe from the places close to the Seven stars viewpoint), while up in Tiantouzhai, you have a range of hotels with some really impressive views. We arrived in Pingan, stayed in a Lonely Planet recommended hotel in the village with a view on a construction site, and on the first day we walked around the Nine Dragons and the Seven Star viewpoints and to the Old Longji Village (which in itself is not really worth the hike). The views are quite nice and really worth going, but having been to Yuanyang, Banuae (Philippines) and north Vietnam, we were not overly impressed. Second day, we left (most of) our luggage in Pingan and we leisurely hiked from Pingan to Tiantouzhai (a very nice walk along green valleys and some smaller rice terraces) and stayed in a hotel at the high end of the village, close to the West Hill Music viewpoint. Amazing! Much more terraces than in Pingan and a grand view of the whole valley. Third day, we hiked down along several impressive viewpoints to Dazhai, took the bus back to Pingan and stayed another night before traveling onwards. You can probably combine getting to Pingan and doing the viewpoints into 1 day. You can also combine our 2nd and 3rd day into 1. If you don’t have to pick up luggage in Pingan, you could probably return to Guilin by bus on the end of the 3rd day. It is true that it is all stairs and steps, up and down, and in July it is very hot and humid, so pack lightly. Even from the Pingan parking lot (where the bus drops you off) to the village is a steep and sweaty 20 minute climb with full luggage. The climb from Dazhai to Tiantouzhai is probably really tough, even without luggage. You can take the cable car up and walk relatively flat to Tiantouzhai. If you have only 1 day, we would opt for the Dazhai / Tiantouzhai area instead of Pingan, taking the cable car up and walking to some viewpoints and then back down.