Yuanyang County (; Hani: ''Yeiqyaq'') is located in Honghe Prefecture in southeastern

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

province, China, along the Red River. It is well known for its spectacular rice-paddy terracing. In 2013, part of the county formed the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces World Heritage Site, the 45th World Heritage Site in China.

Overview

It covers an area of and has a population of approximately 365,000 (2002), of which 88% belong to ethnic minorities and 95% is associated with agriculture. The majority of the inhabitants of the county are from the Hani ethnic group. The

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...

of Yuanyang county in 2021 was 9,312 million Yuan. The administrative seat of the county is the town of ''Nansha'' (a.k.a. New Yuanyang) down in the Red River valley at an elevation of 240 meters. It is situated towards the north-east of the former administrative seat ''Xinjie'' (a.k.a. Old Yuanyang or just Yuanyang) to which it is connected by a long twisting mountain road. To the south of Old Yuanyang, the town of

Panzhihua Panzhihua ( zh, c=攀枝花, p=Pānzhīhuā), formerly Dukou ( zh, labels=no, c=渡口), is a prefecture-level city located in the far south of Sichuan province, China, at the confluence of the Jinsha and Yalong Rivers. It has an administrative ...

is positioned near the top of another major valley of rice-terraces. There are a total of 928 settlements in Yuanyang county, 826 of them being inhabited by only one single ethnic group. The town of Old Yuanyang is a Hani minority settlement atop a ridge of the Ailao mountain range at an elevation of around 1570 metres. It is a popular destination with photographers due to the vast areas of nearby mountains which have been cultivated into terraced rice paddies for at least the past 1300 years by the Hani people. Despite its scenic and cultural attractions, mass tourism has not developed in this region, mainly due to its remote location, lack of a nearby airport and road conditions. The terraced areas of interest to visitors are mainly found between 1000 and 2000 metres above sea level. The winter temperatures here, although never freezing, are such that they only support one rice crop a year. After the harvest, from mid-September till mid-November depending on the elevation, the terraces are filled with water until April, when planting begins. The vast majority of the ethnic minority women in Yuanyang county still wear traditional clothes as their daily attire. The main ethnic group is the Hani who share the region with several other minorities such as the Yi and

Miao Miao may refer to: * Miao people, linguistically and culturally related group of people, recognized as such by the government of the People's Republic of China * Miao script or Pollard script, writing system used for Miao languages * Miao (Unicode ...

. Market days in the villages tend to be very colourful when the different minority groups in the vicinity, each in their own traditional costume, come together to trade and socialise.

Administrative divisions

Yuanyang County currently has 3 towns and 11 townships. ;3 towns * Nansha () * Xinjie () * Niujiaozhai () ;11 townships

Geography

Yuanyang county lies at an altitude ranging from 140 along the Red River up to nearly 3000 metres above sea level in the

Ailao mountains The Ailao Mountains are located in Yunnan, China. They extend northward from the Yun range, and are located at the intersection of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the Tibetan Plateau, and the Hengduan Mountains. The Ailao Mountain Nature Reserv ...

and is situated about north of the border with

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. The climate of Yuanyang county is mainly central sub-tropical monsoon with wet summers and dry winters. Average temperatures range from 26 Celsius down in the Red river valley to 4 Celsius in the upper reaches of the mountains. The closest large towns to the west of Yuanyang county are Shiping and

Yuanjiang Yuanjiang () is a county-level city in the Province of Hunan, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Yiyang. Located in the north of the province, the city is bordered to the north by Nan County, to the northeast b ...

Gejiu Gejiu () (, ; Hani: ''Goqjef''; formerly known as Kochiu) is a county-level city in Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, with 202,000 urban inhabitants (ranked 14th largest city in Yunnan). It is the site of China's la ...

is the major town to the north-east and also the capital of Honghe prefecture. directly to the north of Yuanyang lies Jianshui, a small city with interesting monuments. A few hours to the south-east of Yuanyang is Luchun, another major Hani minority settlement turned modern city. Due to recent highway construction, Old Yuanyang can now be reached in about seven hours by direct bus from Yunnan's capital

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

, situated to the north of the county, a trip which only a few years ago, would take 10 hours or more. Buses also connect Yuanyang with the town of Hekou and the border crossing with Vietnam (6 hours).

Climate

Yuanyang a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Cfa''). Adjacent to

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

(

''BSh''), subtropical monsoon climate (

''Cwa'') and

tropical wet and dry climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...

(

''Aw'').

Ethnic groups

Hani people The Hani or Ho people (Hani language, Hani: ''Haqniq''; zh, c=哈尼族, p=Hānízú; / 𠊛何贰) are a Loloish languages, Lolo-speaking ethnic group in Southern China, Northern Laos, and Vietnam. They form one of the 56 List of ethnic g ...

Miao people Miao is a word that the Chinese use to designate some ethnic minority groups living in southern China and Mainland Southeast Asia. Miao is thus officially recognized by the Chinese government as one of the largest ethnic minority groups that h ...

Yao people The Yao people () or Dao () is a classification for various ethnic minorities in China and Vietnam. Their majority branch is also known as Mien. They originated in the areas around Changsha, which today is the capital of Hunan province. They s ...

Dai people The Dai people ( Burmese: ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; ; ; ; , ; , ; zh, c=, p=Dǎizú) are several Tai-speaking ethnic groups living in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and the Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture ...

Zhuang people The Zhuang (; ; , , Sawndip: 佈獞) are a Tai-speaking ethnic group who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. They form one of the 56 ...

Yi people The Yi or Nuosu people (Nuosu language, Nuosu: , ; see also #Names and subgroups, § Names and subgroups) are an ethnic group in South China, southern China. Numbering nine million people, they are the seventh largest of the 55 Ethnic minorit ...

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

Vertical distribution of the various ethnic minority groups
The Hani and Yi, the creators of the monumental rice terraced mountains which have made Yuanyang famous, are the original inhabitants of these regions. Both their languages belong to the

Tibeto-Burman The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak ...

group. Their villages can mainly be found between 1300 and 1600 metres above sea level. The Dai moved here 700 years ago, and the Zhuang 400 years ago. Both their languages belong to the Tai–Kadai language group. Their villages are situated in the warmer areas below 700 metres elevation, near and along the rivers. Their main crop is rice grown in paddy fields. The Miao and Yao (of the Hmong–Mien language group) are fairly recent arrivals to the region, only settling here 200 and 270 years ago. Their villages are in the cooler and drier upland areas, between 1600 and 1800 metres above sea level, where they grow

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

. The ''Yuanyang County Gazetteer'' (1990:625, 633) lists the following ethnic groups and subgroups. *Hani ** Luobi ** Luomian ** Awu ** Haoni ** Guohong ** Duoni ** Baihong ** Asong *Yi ** Nisu ** Bula ( Phula) ** Alu **

Muji , or is a Japanese retailer which sells a wide variety of household and consumer goods. Muji's design philosophy is minimalist, and it places an emphasis on recycling, reducing production and packaging waste, and a no-logo or "no-brand" policy. ...

*Miao *Yao *Zhuang *Dai Hani ethnic subgroups are located in the following townships of Yuanyang County. * Gouhouzhi : in Zhongjiaozhai , Shalatuo , Ezha , Majie , Huangcaoling ; Malizhai ; Guangpingzhai in Tuanjie Township * Alou : in Duoyishu , Xinjie * Loubi and Loumei : in Ganiang , Xincheng , Xinjie , Fengshuling , Daping * Asu : in Zha'e , Huangcaoling , Huangmaoling * Duoni : in Niujiaozhai ; Zha'e

Transportation

There is no train or plane available in Yuanyang. Taking a long-distance bus is the best way to get to Yuanyang. Normally there are three buses travelling from Kunming to Yuanyang every day. The buses depart from Kunming South Bus Station and arrive at Yuanyang Bus Station which take about 6 hours. There are also buses travelling to Yuanyang from Gejiu, Mengzi, Jianshui. For tourists who would like to transfer from Jianshui, they could take a train from Kunming to Jianshu and then take a long-distance bus from Jianshui to Yuanyang.Travel" ChinaTour.net
Accessed 2014-4-14

Gallery

File:1 yuanyang county old town 2012.jpg, Part of the town of old Yuanyang File:1 yuanyang rice terrace qingkou 2012.jpg, Mist over Qingkou File:1 yuanyang rice terrace paozhuzhai 2012.jpg, Sea of clouds surrounding Paozhuzhai File:1 yuanyang county rice terrace bada view 2012.jpg, A village as seen from Bada File:1 yuanyang aerial pano 2018.jpg, Aerial panorama from Bada File:1 yuanyang rice terrace laohuzhui 2012.jpg, Sunset over Laohuzui Image:Yuanyang county hani village women.jpg, Hani village women of Yuanyang county, Yunnan, China Image:Yuanyang hani farmer.jpg, Hani farmer on his way home File:Ethnic Hani Headgear China.jpg, An ethnic Hani girl with the typical headgear for children File:Ethnic Yi China Costume.jpg, Typical daily attire of ethnic Hani File:Yuanyang cow pat.jpg, Water buffalo dung drying on a wall in a Hani ethnic minority village in Yuanyang county

Notes

External links

Yuanyang government website
{{Authority control County-level divisions of Honghe Prefecture