DAZZLING DAYAOSHAN PART 1

Ricefields nestling beneath Dayaoshan mountains.

"The lofty peaks are crowned with smoky clouds,

In the forests centenarian trees endure."

is how one local verse describes the range of mysterious mountains and forests located in South China's Guangxi Province. Known as the Dayaoshan, it is a chain of mountains in the 2,000-3000metre range. Its verdant slopes which are hidden all year round by fog and mist, are the home of the gentle Yao minority group.

In Guangxi Province, there are 30 different branches of the Yao minority group. Within the Dayaoshan mountains there are five different branches - the Chashan Yao, Ao Yao, Pan Yao, Hualan Yao and the Shanzi Yao. Each branch of the Yao is differentiated by their head-dress.

The Cha Shan Yao, for instance, wear hats embellished with metal bands, while the Pan Yao wear circular hats. The Yaos of Dayaoshan have been mountain-loving woodlanders for many generations, living peaceably in their abodes, not unlike elves and gnomes in some green glen.

To visit the Yaos in their mountain fastness, we headed for the town of Liuzhou which is 140km from Jinxiu, the chief town in the Yao Autonomous County where the Yao people live and where the Dayaoshan mountains are located.

ROAD TO JINXIU

Land of Peach Blossoms

China is a land of superlatives where scenery is concerned, and the drive to Jinxiu certainly opened our eyes to its rustic beauty. We marvelled at how changeless China's rural areas have remained. The countryside seemed to be wrapped in sonorous slumber as we drove past lush valleys, redolent with pastoral tranquillity.

Timeless China

Flashing by our windsreeen, we caught sight of clusters of white-washed or beige, mud-walled farmhouses, black-tiled,with red couplets on wooden doors. In the fields, cows were grazing, farmers hoeing, ruddy-cheeked womenfolk with headscarves working, with babies strapped to their backs; peasants heaving stacks of grain, laying out bunches of hay for winter and piling wood by doorways. They worked on neat vegetable plots, fields of padi,sugar cane and bamboo groves. In the distance the brooding limestone cliffs of Guangxi enfolded the fields and valleys in warm embrace.

Sharing our country road were jiggling little pony carts, men leading bullocks, women hoisting bamboo baskets and schoolboys running pellmell to village schools. The rich produce of the land, mandarin oranges, pomelos and sugar cane were spilling from orchards and farms on to country roads as enterprising peasants set up makeshift stalls to sell their surplus harvest.

In this region of abundance, we were greeted on every side with smiles and greetings and warm salutations. Perhaps, we were plain lucky,or it was a temporary illusion, but here in the heart of Guangxi, we seemed to have stumbled onto that fabled Land of Peach Blossoms where people lead charmed lives.

Abundant warmth!

Abundant harvest!