I love green. I decided green was my favourite colour a few years ago and am now the proud owner of a number of green t-shirts, dresses and jumpers. I don’t have any green trousers yet, that’s on my ‘to do’ list.

I love the dark green glass of wine bottles, I adore the sight of olives – whether eating them or painting my walls in their very same shade, and I cherish the bright little slices of lime and cucumber that decorate my gin on sunny afternoons.

Green is an amazing colour and I love almost every shade it comes in. So imagine my delight when arriving to a huge area of rice paddies in China to discover lush greenness as far as the eye could see.

China is surprisingly rainy at the moment. I say surprising because I never checked what the weather was supposed to be like in September but naively expected sun, which has been the staple of our trip so far. Instead, China’s been the victim of huge downpours and floods that have left many homeless and others worse still.

But for the rice paddies of northern Guangxi, near Guilin in South China, the results of the rain are remarkable.

Rising up over 1,000 metres, the terraces of rice paddies are broken only by small villages of wooden buildings that blend beautifully with their surroundings. The tribal women that live in the villages have shiny long black hair that has never been cut and is piled up on their head like a glistening black hat. It is a sight to behold.

There is only one thing to do here: slowly meander up the terraces, observe the local village life and take in the astonishing panoramic sights around you that seem to get better with every step. The misty fog that engulfed us during our stay only served to make it all a little more magical and the greenery prettier still.

Here’s a few of our favourite pictures:

Travel Tips
We stayed in the village of Darzhai during our stay at the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. It is easy to catch a bus from Guilin (outside the train station) and it takes about three hours. When you are dropped off, it is a 45 minute climb through the terraces up to the village – a beautiful walk in itself.

We stayed at the Dragon’s Den Hostel, which had a fabulous communal space downstairs although as it is completely made from wood there is nothing in the way of sound proofing! Their website is www.dragonsdenhostel.com.