For over 1,300 years the Hani people have sculpted the Ailao Mountains into thousands of water-filled terraces that fall as much as 1,800 metres down a single slope. UNESCO listed the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in 2013, and Yuanyang county is where they are at their most theatrical.
The rhythm here is simple: Duoyishu for sunrise, Bada or Laohuzui for sunset, village walks in between. Stay two nights in Xinjie or a village guesthouse — the light, fog and mirror-water change hour by hour, and day-trippers see almost none of it.