Ancient rice paddies catching rim light, sunrise at Duoyishi, Yunnan Province, China
Chinese have been cultivating rice for at least 8,000 years. It has transformed the landscape. Over the past 1,300 years, the Hani people have developed a complex system of channels to bring water from the forested mountaintops to the terraces. They have also created an integrated farming system that involves buffalos, cattle, ducks, fish and eel and supports the sustainable production of red rice, the area’s primary crop. The landscape reflects an integrated four-fold system of forests, water supply, terraces and houses. A complex system of channels has been developed to spread this water around the terraces in and between different valleys. The Honghe Hani rice terraces are an exceptional reflection of a resilient land management system that optimises social and environmental resources, demonstrates an extraordinary harmony between people and their environment in spiritual, ecological and visual terms, and is based on a spiritual respect for nature and respect for both the individual and the community, through a system of dual interdependence known as the ‘Man-God Unity social system’. Red rice, the main crop of the terraces is farmed on the basis of a complex, integrated farming and breeding system within which ducks fertilise the young rice plants, while chickens and pigs contribute fertiliser to more mature plants, water buffalo slough the fields for the next year’s planting and snails growing in the water of the terraces consume various pests. Yunnan's rice terraces are among the oldest human structures in China, still ploughed, as they always have been, by domesticated water buffalo, whose ancestors originated in these very valleys. The mountaintop forests are the lifeblood of the system, capturing the water that makes irrigation possible.
Size: 5000px × 3334px
Location: Honge Hani rice terraces, Duoyishu, Yunnan Province, China
Photo credit: © Terry Allen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: ancient, china, county, culture, duoyishu, dykes, ecological, engineering, environment, farming, hani, heritage, hillside, honge, horizontal, integrated, light, nature, paddies, production, province, rice, rim, site, small, sunrise, sustainable, system, terraces, tourism, travel, trees, unesco, water-filled, world, yuanyang, yunnan
