Guilin Cultural Ecology and Rural Immersion Educational Tour

After arriving in Guilin, the driver will pick you up and take you to the pre-booked hotel for check-in. Here you can rest and relax, and in the evening, you can go to nearby restaurants to experience Guilin's characteristic farm-style dishes.

After breakfast, head to the Longji Terraces to start a full day of exploration. At the Longji Terraces observation deck, instructors will guide students to observe the composition of the terraces and explore the "four-element co-structure system" of the terraces (forest, village, terrace, and water system) through interactive Q&A sessions.

Terraced Field Classroom

Next, students will visit the museum, where instructors will explain farming practices, costumes, architecture, elderly care systems, and folk songs, deepening their understanding of terrace culture. During the subsequent village tour, students will observe the relationship between villages and mountains, as well as the connections between stilted buildings in the villages, and analyze how villagers in the ancient Zhuang villages coexist harmoniously with mountains, streams, and fellow residents. 

Student Group About to Embark on Exploring Terraces

In the terrace classroom, through teacher-student interactions, the content about terraces will be comprehensively presented, enabling students to systematically understand the harmonious natural-human ecosystem of the terraces and inherit this globally important agricultural cultural heritage.

The Distribution of Longji Terraced Fields and Villages

In the afternoon, students will engage in seasonal farming experiences in the terrace farming practice area, such as sowing seeds, catching fish with hands, reinforcing field ridges, and harvesting rice. Under the guidance of instructors, students can personally experience the hardships of farming labor and the joy of harvest, enhance their understanding of the unique agricultural methods of the Longsheng Terraces, cultivate awareness of cherishing food, and strengthen the spirit of labor.

Students Experiencing Terraced Field Cultivation

Your Journey’s Rewards:

Students immerse themselves in the natural, cultural, and ecological system of Guilin's Longji Terraces, understand the four-element co-structure system composed of forests, terraces, villages, and water systems, experience the unique farming wisdom of the terraces, and develop a sense of responsibility to protect mountain ecological environments and a mission to inherit global agricultural cultural heritage.

Educational Focus:

What are the characteristics and ecological significance of the "four-element co-structure" ecosystem of the Longji Terraces?

Takeaway:

The "four-element co-structure" of the Longji Terraces holds great significance for farmers' production and livelihoods as well as ecological balance. 

The four-element co-structure refers to the ecological cycle system composed of forests, villages, terraces, and water systems. Forests are located at the top of the mountains to conserve water sources; villages are built on the hillsides for convenient living and production; terraces are distributed at the foot of the mountains, forming a layered landscape using mountain terrain; water systems run through them to form a gravity irrigation system. 

This system not only ensures the stable development of agricultural production but also maintains regional ecological balance.

Thought Challenge:

How to better integrate traditional farming experience with modern agricultural technology to promote the sustainable development of terrace agriculture?

In the early morning, head to the viewing platform and wait quietly for the spectacular sunrise over the Longji Terraces. 

Students Hiking to Explore Terraces

Dazhai Village

After, students embark on a hiking journey from Ping'an Village to Dazhai Village. During the hike, they enjoy the idyllic scenery, can chat with villagers in the villages to learn farming skills, or learn intangible cultural heritage techniques from the Zhuang people. 

Students Hiking

Ancient Zhuang Village

During the process, students can also observe the differences in crops in terraces at different altitudes and discuss the farming techniques adapted to topographic changes.

For lower-grade students, they can choose the hiking route from Ping'an Village to the Ancient Zhuang Village, which takes about 2 hours in total. Students can observe the detailed structure of the terraces at close range and talk with farmers to learn farming knowledge. 

After completing the hike and returning, the lower-grade students will go to Reed Flute Cave after a short rest. Entering the cave, they can watch the colorful stalagmites, stone pillars, and stone curtains under the light, enriching their geological knowledge during the exploration.

Conversations with Zhuang Farmers

Your Journey’s Rewards:

During the hiking experience, explore the natural scenery of the terraces and the folk customs of Zhuang villages; lower-grade students get close to the details of the terraces and the culture of ancient villages through the short hike from Ping'an Village to the Ancient Zhuang Village.

Educational Focus:

How do the villages in Longji Terraces adapt to the mountainous environment?

Takeaway:

The buildings in Longji Zhuang Villages connect with the sloping land through different methods such as overhanging, elevating, and setback terraces, cleverly adapting to the mountainous terrain. Stilted buildings leave heat pressure channels between floors and wind pressure channels in front of and behind the houses; through ways such as overhanging eaves, attached rooms, cantilevering with hanging columns, and elevating the ground floor, they adapt well to the regional climate environment. The alley road network system is laid out in a dendritic pattern, reasonably solving the problems of passage and elevation difference. 

Zhuang villages use local materials, and through the extensive use of landscape materials such as stone, bamboo, and wood, they create distinctive rural settlement space landscapes.

Thought Challenge:

In the process of tourism development of Longji Terraces, how to protect the ecological environment of the terraces?

After breakfast in the morning, board the sightseeing boat to tour the Li River. During the tour, you can enjoy the natural scenery and rural landscapes on both sides of the Li River, and learn about the differences in crop planting by Guilin farmers in different sections of the Li River. 

During the process, you may also encounter fishermen rowing bamboo rafts to fish on the river, and take the opportunity to learn about Guilin's fishing culture. After the boat tour, depart for Yangshuo.

The Beautiful Scenery of Li River

In the afternoon, students ride bicycles along the greenway lined with rice fields on both sides, enjoying the beautiful rural scenery while cycling. During the ride, you can stop to listen to the guide explain the growth cycle and planting methods of the crops. Cycle to a Zhuang village to visit a local farmer's family. Taste the local characteristic oil tea, learn its production process, watch the farmers' farm tools, understand different types of farm tools and their usage methods, and experience the local farming culture.

Rural Bike Tour

Home Visit

Your Journey’s Rewards:

Through the Li River tour, students can understand the close connection between the Li River and the farming along its banks, and recognize the important role of the river water in irrigating farmland. During the rural bicycle tour and home visit, they observe crop growth up close, experience farm life, and learn about the use of traditional farm tools and farming arrangements.

Educational Focus:

What important role does the Li River play in the development of local farming?

Takeaway:

The Li River and its tributaries provide sufficient irrigation water for farmland. Through reasonable water conservancy facilities such as canals and ponds, river water is diverted into farmland to meet the water needs of crop growth. A stable water supply ensures the stability of agricultural production, and the role of irrigation water is particularly crucial during dry seasons.

Thought Challenge:

At present, the aquatic biological resources in the Li River basin have declined seriously. What impact does this have on the biodiversity in the farmland ecosystem that relies on the Li River's water resources for irrigation?

In the morning, students will start the Guilin farm-style cuisine making experience, which covers the whole process from picking vegetables to cooking dishes. 

Students can participate in activities such as picking fresh vegetables from the garden and catching fresh fish. They will cook Guilin characteristic dishes under professional guidance. Students will divide labor and cooperate to complete procedures like washing vegetables, lighting the fire, and stir-frying, so as to improve their teamwork spirit. 

After the dishes are served, everyone will taste the meals made by themselves, and personally experience the culture of farming food from ingredient picking to cooking.

Students Picking Vegetables

Students Experiencing Making Farmhouse Dishes

In the afternoon, students will go to Xianggong Mountain to carry out investigations on geological and farming landscapes. When climbing Xianggong Mountain, students can observe the karst landforms along the way, feel the rough texture of the rock surfaces with their hands, and understand the long-term shaping effect of running water and wind on the mountains. 

After reaching the top of Xianggong Mountain, the macro pattern of the Li River landscape and farming scenery unfolds before their eyes. Students overlook how the river water nourishes the farmland on both banks, observe the distribution rules of villages and rice fields, and discuss the in-depth connection between the landscape forms and farming site selection together.

Your Journey’s Rewards:

Through learning to cook farm-style dishes in the morning, students master simple cooking skills of farm-style dishes and experience the transformation process of farming ingredients from the field to the dining table. In the afternoon, they climb Xianggong Mountain, overlook the panoramic view of the Li River landscape, and intuitively feel the layout relationship between the Li River, villages and farmland.

Educational Focus:

What is the connection between Guilin characteristic farm-style dishes and the farming environment in the Li River basin?

Takeaway:

The fertile soil and high-quality water sources along the Li River breed fresh vegetables, grains and aquatic products, which become the core ingredients of farm-style dishes. Therefore, most of Guilin's local characteristic dishes are mainly river fresh and local products, such as Li River fish, field snails, Lipu taro, water chestnuts, etc. These are mostly fresh seasonal ingredients, emphasizing greenness, ecology and non-pollution

Thought Challenge:

How to inherit the farm food culture in the Li River basin while making more people pay attention to the protection of Li River's farming ecology through food experience?

In the morning, you will be sent to the airport by the driver, concluding the Guilin Terraces and Culture Educational Tour.