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Xijiang. There are about a thousand houses in this village, the largest one among the Meo villages. Most of the houses are made of brown wood, giving them a special look on the mountain’s slope. The village is built within a valley. Houses are scattered on the slopes of mountains from both sides. A river crosses the two parts of the village. You can cross it by walking on one of the wind and rain bridges, typical to Meo villages of the province. Beautiful rice terraces are all around the area. There are a couple of possibilities to tour Xijiang – in the center of the village located at the bottom of the valley, climbing the southern slope or climbing the northern slope, where mose rice terraces are.
I left the hotel in Kaili with my huge bag in order to travel from Kaili to Xijiang and directly to Congjiang. Since there was no bus connecting the two, I had to take a bus from Kaili to Xijiang (two hours), go back to Kaili by bus and take another bus to Congjiang. Leishan is somewhere on the way, and the bus from Kaili to Congjiang stops in Leishan on its way. To make a little shortcut, instead of going on the bus directly to Xijiang, I took the bus from Kaili to Leishan (13 yuan, one hour and a half), I left my huge bag in luggage storage (there is no such thing in Leishan. It was left in the ticket lady’s office) for 4 yuan a day, and went on another bus from Leishan to Xijiang leaving at 14:30 (10 yuan, one hour).
We arrived at 15:00. There are many hostels in Xijiang village. The first and closest to the bus station, offers a room for 30 yuan. It’s a wooden room with a double bed. There’s a shared shower with hot water outside the rooms. Unfortunately it was fully booked. Nearby I’ve found a better place – wooden rooms with a double bed for twenty yuans. There was a shared hot shower outside.
The main street of the village is parallel with the river’s bank. The rest of the houses are built on mountains’ slopes to the north and south of the river. The mountain to the north looks more interesting, rich with rice fields. Around 15:30 I went outside to tour the rice fields.
Villagers and children walk on the dirt roads and stairs. Some are leading horses, some are carrying heavy rice bags on their soldiers using an iron rod. Each bag is on a different side of the rod.
The area is flooded with beautiful rice terraces, walking in the trails is joyful. I decided to circle the mountains so I would not have to get back by the same way I’ve come from.
The way that climbs the mountain continues to the left, into the the next mountain. I wanted to climb down that mountain and climb up the mountain in front of it, and so complete a triangle that gets me back to Xijiang. The trails that pass through the rice terraces are extremely narrow. There’s a wider trail that leads to a remote village, which is not where I wanted to go. A woman I met, who was working in on of the rice fields, told me it was impossible to get back to Xijiang using the way I chose. She said that trail leads to a completely different village. On the I managed to lose one part of my walking stick that was stuck in a muddy ground till it was completely gone.
The way to the bottom of the mountain got far longer than I expected. I was under-equiped with only a camera and a T-shirt. I didn’t even bother to bring water with me. In order to climb all the way down you have to carefully walk on a tight trail whose width is approximately 20 centimeters. On each side of the trail there’s another rice field. Some of them are flooded with water. In the end of every rice field there’s a steep slope leading to another rice field or terrace. This procedure repeats itself over and over again. So it turned out I walked the same way in different levels of the mountain.
At some point I reached a slippery steep route which led me to a field in the valley below. I had a hard time deciding where to keep going from there. The next mountain was covered with trees. It seemed as if the villagers have yet to work the land. It was one of the mountains part of my way back to Xijiang.
I searched for the continuation of the trail until finally I’ve spotted some run over bushes. I followed it till I found a narrow trail, almost invisible, going up the forested mountain. I’ve followed the trail by looking for run over flora. The hour was already late, it began to get dark. I climbed that trail for half an hour without any sign for fields or villagers, but not for too much longer.
From far I saw two villagers carrying rice bags on their shoulders. I increased my walking pace, waving them goodbye until I caught up with them.
That moment I had a feeling these were the last villagers on their way back to the village. The trails and fields were completely deserted. The time was six o’clock in the evening. I was not sure where I was, so I asked one of them how much time was left walking to Xijiang. When the villager answered me – eight hours, I did not know whether he was serious or joking. After talking with him for a while I managed to understand that they are both on their way to Xijiang, and that was nothing more than Chinese humor.
I passed them and joined a group of local women, they were too with baskets on their shoulders. It seems there’s no discrimination among men and women as it comes to carrying bags. Each rice bags weighs about 20 kilograms, so two of them weigh about 40 kilograms. Villagers have to carry them for kilometers. It’s not an easy task.
Pretty soon the trail I was walking on had connected to a familiar trail. Half an hour later I saw houses. I was back in Xijiang.
Xijiang at night is flooded with tourists. The wind and rain bridges along with other structures are illuminated, giving the village a special atmosphere. On the main road there are souvenir shops, restaurants and grossery stores. There’s a luxurious hotel on the other side of the village, where workers are dressed with typical Meo clothes.
But besisdes a nice nightly walk along the river, there’s not much to do in Xijiang at night.
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