China: the rise of rice

Behind the scenes of 1,200-year-old Honghe Hani Rice Terraces (UNESCO).

The Hani, one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, has always been living on the south of China close to the Vietnamese border. Over the centuries, they have created picturesque cascades of terraces out of terrain that was hardly suitable for agriculture. They tamed the climate and trapped the vapor in their micro environment. They made animals serve their interests. Bulls plow the land, ducks weed the terraces, while fish provide the needed portion of phosphorus that is crucial for rice. Behind the otherworldly landscape of Yunnan province is hidden the 1,200-year-old tradition of growing rice.