Honghe Hani is famous for cultivating terraced fields and he has created an environmental wonder in mountain area. Hani culture is a terraced field agricultural civilization, which has a perfect agriculture system and an agro-worship system as well, the concept of worship is built on the basis that man and nature are in harmony, countless terraced fields are an evidence of this belief.

Honghe terraced fields have a long history. From the data in Chinese characters, they have already had a history of for more than 1,300 years. Hani terraced fields distribute in Yuanyang, Honghe, Luchun and Jinping Counties, connecting terraced fields are seen from mountain to mountain with great momentum. In Yuanyang, the area of terraced fields amount to more than 11,000 hectares, and for more than 3,000 steps of which stretch from the foot of a hill up to the top.

Yuanyang is on a high ridge between two valleys. It's mainly a new town dominated by unimaginative cement buildings and two long streets. Its buildings rise so steeply that stairways connect many roads. Strolling through the market was visually intoxicating. Ethnic minorities, who make up the bulk of the people in town and the rural scenery are Yuanyang's attractions. The town was a bustling mosaic of brilliant color. Women in dazzlingly embroidered outfits toted bushel baskets of produce that seemed to glow in the alpine light.

Yuanyang terraced fields has been placed into the preparatory list of World Heritage in China, the Application of Honghe Hani Terraced Fields for World Heritage has been committed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization by Chinese Government in January, 2002.

The Yuanyang landscape changes vividly through the year.
Winter and early spring:The paddies are flooded. This creates the reflecting pool effect, a photographer's dream
In the summer:The paddies are luxuriantly green with growing rice stalks.
After the fall harvest:The paddies become naked bare earth.

Ecology and land preservation
The rice farmers have had to practice those concepts centuries before they were widely accepted around the world. Without hard work maintaining the terrace walls and irrigation system, the precious top soil would wash down the hillsides into the rivers.

Hike carefully
The steep rice terrace paths can be quite slippery. Wear appropriate shoes or boots.

Nearest major city
The Yuan Yang rice terraces are about 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.