In the area of Ailao Mountain in Yunnan, the terrain is steep, the mountain is high and the valley is deep. When you come to learn Chinese in China, you may know that the altitude ranges between 3,000 meters and 600 meters, forming a special climate combine cold temperate zone, subtropical zone and tropical zone together. The climate changes vertically.
Even though the environment is extremely bad in the area of Ailao Mountain, the Hani people still manage to live a good life there. When mentioning the Hani people, the most impressive for those foreigners who study in China may be the terraced fields. We all know it is world famous and beautiful, but we may not know that it formed because of the efforts made by generations of Hani people.
This area of land provides the necessary material requirements to Hani people who live there, and at the same time, it offers all of the people a beautiful art holy land. Foreigners who learn Chinese language in China may be told that Yuanyang Terraced Field has been a lively system since the ancient time. Nowadays, it is still the basis of Hani people’s material life and mental life.
The total terraced field covers an area of 166,688 Mu, in which there is an agricultural population of 336,971. Those who study Chinese in the city of Kunming may have noticed that there is an area of 63958.4 hectares forest was planted in the mountain area, which providing the domestic water and farmland water for the local people.
In the whole county, there are 4,653 ditches are dug for the purpose of irrigating the terraced fields in the mountain area. It forms the outstanding features of Yuanyang Terraced Field. During the period when foreigners learn Mandarin in Yunnan province, they should never miss to go to enjoy the beauty of the terraced field in Yuanyang.
There are some foreign learners who study Mandarin Chinese have gone to many beautiful tourist attraction in China. They can find that the terraced field is not like the historical relics neither like the Great Wall and the Imperial Palce, nor like the pure natural landscapes such as Mount Tai and Mount Huang. In is the combination of the local Hani people’s creation and the nature.
In the Ailao Mountain area with bad climate, it still exists a beautiful scenery formed by the jointly efforts of nature and local Hani people’s creation. It is a combination of nature and culture that we should never miss.