GUILIN  DAY 2 

Day 2 consisted of a trip to the Longji (Dragon Backbone) Rice terraces.  These fields are cared for by the Zhuang people, one of China's 56 official ethnic minorities.  My memory of what he told me says that they were moved here at some time in the past and have been the people who care for these fields.    The terraces were begun in the Yuan Dynasty (1272-1368 ) and were developed over the centuries until the early  Qing (1644-1911).

As we walked in, we could see a few people working the soil, and beginning to plant rice.
I was most impressed by the fields, by the magnitude of the labor that had to be put in to create  and the terraces, the difficulty of working the terraces, of maintaining them and of moving the seedlings and getting ready for planting. 

The trip from Guilin was about an hour and a half drive.  There are several fields, the lower ones being the more frequently visited fields, one of which even has a cable car.   We went to the upper field, which, David said, was in its original state and necessitated our walking in, uphill to the top of the fields and the homes of the  Zhuang.  We ate at a restaurant there and visited one of the houses.

Community Center includes medical facilities

Seeing these terraces and the people working them impressed on me how difficult life can be for these farmers.   The whole idea of creating the terraces, maintaining them, growing the crops here over the centuries of their existence was an expression of the strength and will of the human spirit.  Seeing these first hand was most impressive.

That afternoon we headed back to Guilin and on the way we decided to stop at the Flying Tiger Memorial Museum, where I was to visit the next day before I returned to Shanghai.  When we got there, we discovered the museum had very limited hours and would be closed when I was scheduled to visit and in fact was closed at that time.  But David, my guide,  being resourceful, talked to the staff people who were there and convinced them to allow me in to view the artifacts and photos because "I had traveled a long way to see the museum."  

The story of the Flying Tigers is quite long and can be found in Wikipedia.  It seems the pilots had painted sharks on their planes, but when the Chinese saw the planes, they though of them as Tigers.
These volunteer airmen were among the most effective in fighting the invading Japanese prior to and during WW II.

This view looks back at the entrance to the Memorial Museum from the inside.   The stone cylinders were used to create landing strips for the Flying Tiger airpl

Chennault's second wife, Chen Xiangmei

Claire Lee Chennalt

Equally fascinating is the story of their commander, Claire Lee Chennault, who at one point resigned  from the US Air Corps because he was designated as unsuitable for promotion and signed on to help China as their air force advisor.   He eventually returned to the Air Force with the rank of  General and retired as Lieutenant General



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