Yuányáng Rice Terraces

I spend two days walking the hills and dales of the Yuányáng Rice Terraces and am pleased to report that in spite of the brochures advising me that the development of rice paddy tourism was imminent it is still a quiet and laidback area of China with small villages dotting the hillsides and people just going about there business herding the water buffaloes and farming the rice.
It was quite pleasant to see a bit of China that didn't have thousands of people standing in front of each sight and indeed while I was walking about I never saw a single other tourist.
The rice fields are apperently being nominated for inclusion on the UNESCO world heritage list and I am not suprised. Starting at 200 meters altitude they go all the way up to 2600 meters with some paddies the size of a soccer field while others aren't much larger then a single square meter.