The MEDIA doesn’t show YOU this SIDE of CHINA 🇨🇳

The MEDIA doesn’t show YOU this SIDE of CHINA 🇨🇳

Far from Beijing and Shanghai lies a completely 
different side of China. One of the country’s poorest provinces, yet also one of its most 
diverse. A place of ancient traditions, vibrant cultures, and landscapes 
that feel more like Southeast Asia than the China you might imagine. 
Bordering Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, Yunan sits in the far south of China, where few 
people outside the country know much about it. [Music] We started our journey 
through the province by waking up to a magical sunrise in one of the 
most unique places we’ve ever seen, the Yuanyang rice terraces. Perfectly golden in 
the early September sun. [Music] Coming somewhere like this is just a world away from when we 
were in Shenzen just a couple of days ago. It’s such a different side of China that I feel 
like we haven’t we’ve been some rural places, but not quite as crazy as this. Yeah, nothing like 
this. Watch out for the cow poo. Buffalo poo. So, up here is something you definitely won’t find 
in Shenzen, and that is buffaloos walking up the road. Look at this. Couldn’t be more 
different from the crazy mega city. Yeah, these people are stuck. Look what they going 
to do. Head-on head with four, five buffalo. [Music] That is the loudest vehicle I’ve heard in 
ages because literally everything in China is electric. We’ve just begun a hike where 
we’re going to be dropping down into the rice terraces. At this time of the year, we’re only 
about a month or so away from the harvest. So, as you can see in the distance, a lot of the 
rice terraces are looking very green and golden. I wasn’t sure how much we’d be able to actually 
walk through the rice terraces here because I feel like the farmers are quite protective over it, of 
course. But actually, we’re walking like straight through the middle and you can see like all the 
filtration water system running through that will probably flood the fields once they’ve done with 
the harvest. So, Eunnan province actually has the most ethnic diversity of the whole of China. 
And one of the ethnic groups here is Hani. And these are called the Hani rice terraces. Now, 
the Hani rice is actually unique and different to other types of rice. And it’s actually 
supposed to be more nutritious. Apparently, they don’t use any uh pesticides and it’s all 
done in a very organic way. Oh, that’s rice. Oh, we found our rice. Is this rice? Well, I couldn’t 
I don’t think you should quite eat this yet, but it eventually will be. We’re walking properly 
amongst the rice fields now. And this path I think we’re going to take is about 3 hours long. And 
we’ve got like photos to see the right way, but because it’s a different season, it’s a 
little bit hard to see which way to go. Joel, look at this. Look, we’ve got chilies growing 
here. And we’ve got some like eggplant over here. Eggplant. Oh, look. Runner beans. Oh, wow. 
Wow. It’s cool. They’re mixing up as well. Yeah. Probably have some chilies in our dinner later, no 
doubt, cuz we are in China. And obviously, we’ll probably have some rice or what is known here as 
me. Mifa. One of the only Chinese words we know. They just go on forever, don’t they? Yeah. I 
keep almost falling a little bit here because it’s so narrow. It’s really thin. Just when we 
thought this place a little bit back in time, we see a drone carrying something across the 
rice fields. Like it almost looked like a bag of rice or something. I think it was like maybe 
it’s a delivery system or like it looked like a parcel cuz it’s just dropped something 
off and now it’s going back. So crazy. How this way? This way. There you go. Okay. 
Because we can’t use like the local maps. We’re trying to follow it on maps on 
me, but the paths just don’t add up. We’ve walked quite a way through the terraces 
now. We’re just going to kind of walk straight up along this path, which is very obvious, to get 
back to the town cuz we’re getting a bit lost. [Music] We’ve just had a shower and cleaned 
up after that hike. And now we want to show you the room because this place is definitely 
worth staying in. Here we are. We are staying at Jackie’s guest house. And Jackie is the 
owner and he actually speaks like almost perfect English which is great for us because 
this place is confusing. But also this room is amazing and we’ve got a great view over the 
rice terraces and of the beautiful town around. And if you look down here, you can see see 
one of the locals on top of the traditional honey thatched roofs. I saw him put out the corn 
earlier today to dry and now he’s like collecting it. I feel like today we’ve been looking for 
like the best view of these rice terraces and honestly the view from our rooftop here at the 
hotel is probably my favorite because you can see this beautiful town in front of it and it’s 
just so unique. These houses here are actually called mushroom houses and they’ve got like these 
thatched roofs almost like we used to have in the UK and then brick walls. I actually really 
like these mushroom houses. I think they’re really really cool. I’ve not seen these before. 
I don’t know why they’re called mushrooms. Maybe they have they got similar texture. They kind of 
look like a mushroom a little bit. A little bit. Spanning over 40,000 hectares, these terraces 
have been carefully cultivated for more than 1300 years. What makes them truly remarkable is 
the ingenious water management system the locals developed to keep the fields thriving. A system 
that’s still in use today. I want to share with you guys one of the drones I’ve been using more 
recently. This is a Hoverare X1 Pro Max. And this thing has been a gamecher for me. Usually when 
I have a large drone, I often end up leaving it in the hotel room and not bringing it with us. 
But when you have a drone which literally fits in your pocket and it’s under 250 g, there is 
no reason why this shouldn’t come with us. and it really doesn’t feel like a sacrifice cuz this 
thing actually shoots in 8K even though it is this small. And it also has automated flying mode. So 
flying has never been easier. One of my favorite features of this drone is the spiral mode. And 
it basically encircles around you whilst climbing higher. And it honestly gives you such cinematic 
shots. And one of the big things is you don’t have a large controller in shot which never looks 
good on camera. It never looks cinematic. It’s such an easy way to level up your travel footage. 
And on the new update with orbit and zoom out, they’re actually extended the distances. So you 
get such incredible perspectives of where you are. Another practical feature is co-pilot. 
When you’re flying in the automated modes, you can use this thing or you can use the 
phone app to control the drone. It allows you to adapt the flying modes whilst in the air 
and also allows you to get really creative with your shots. Now with the beacon and these 
joysticks, which just clip on like this, you can now use the drone manually. So you can 
operate it like a standard ordinary drone which allows you to get incredible sweeping drone shots 
all over these rice terraces. And for photography, the Hover shoots DG photos. So if you like 
tweaking the light and the colors, this drone is going to be great for you. If you’ve ever wanted 
a prolevel drone without carrying all that bulky, unnecessary equipment around, then the Hover X1 
Pro Max is going to be for you. It’s powerful, portable, and ready to fly straight out of your 
pocket. Check out the link in the description if you want to learn more about the Hoverare X1 Pro 
Max. And a big thank you to Hoverer for supporting this adventure. After a couple of days exploring 
the rice terraces, we made a stop in Janu to explore its old town. We’ve just arrived in 
Janu, which is famous for having an ancient city, and that is exactly where we are right now. It was 
built in the 14th century, but I think it’s been like redeveloped because it doesn’t look super 
old in places, but it’s very cool here. It looks in very good condition for something that’s 14th 
century. No, thank you. Pomegranate. It’s okay. Okay. I don’t know what you’re saying. Oh, we don’t speak Chinese. I don’t know. But 
thank you. I like your hat. It’s good. I know. Bye-bye. It’s funny because they seem to love to 
gift us fruit here. Like earlier we got gifted a mango by our hotel owner. Um, which we can’t even 
eat because we don’t have knives or anything, but they seem to love to give us fruit. 
And they always speak to us in Chinese like we understand. And we definitely dug. 
We just smile and wave and say [ __ ] I’ve seen quite a few people playing these 
different checker games, but it’s all in Chinese and like Chinese characters on 
them. So, I have no idea what it is, but it’s so interesting. They seem so 
engrossed and everyone comes and watches them, don’t they? I also just saw the weirdest 
thing. I think a little girl needed to pee, so the granddad just kind of picked her up, 
put her over the drain to pee in the drain. maybe find a toilet. Very different here to other 
areas of China. So, behind me here is the Xiaoyang Tower and apparently it looks like the one in 
Tinnamon Square. It’s very similar archway, but it’s obviously a lot smaller than the one 
there because Tinnamon Square is absolutely huge. Does look cool, doesn’t it? I wonder 
what it says there. You can go up there. I’ve seen people waving to us from the top. 
Really? Should we try and go up up there? Okay. Whoa, that was so interesting. So, that guy had 
like a makeshift bong which he made out of a plastic bottle and then he was smoking I guess 
it was tobacco. I honestly don’t know much about smoking and all that stuff. Try and get up 
here then. Can we get up through these gates? Niha 230. 30. Okay. Oh, this is 15 each. Oh, you found an ancient bell. Do you want to 
push? Can’t see an obvious sign saying no, which I feel like they usually have 
in China. So, we’ll just give it Ooh, wa. I’ve just translated the Chinese information. 
And apparently, this was made in the 14th century as well. And when it’s hit hard, it can 
be heard around the whole of this city. [Music] Our time in January was short, but 
allowed to see just how much the culture here differs from China’s major 
cities that we’ve experienced previously. So, we’re jumping on the highspeed rail 
for I think about 6 hours today to get right up towards the north of this 
province. The highspeed rail took us all the way to Ling Jang, one of the most 
popular tourist hotspots in the region. We have just walked up this hill and it’s 
suddenly the sun’s come out and it feels so much warmer. And I think we’re going to have a 
view over this ancient city. I’m also starting to feel the altitude quite a bit as I’m walking 
up the stairs. It’s like 2,400 m and cuz we come sea level. It feels quite a bit, doesn’t it? It 
does. Together or together? Together. We change alipe. Okay. Alipe. Your English is good. 
Yes. It’s good. It’s good. My Chinese nose 70 which is about £3 pound50 each which 
is it’s not too bad to be fair. There are worse prices in China. Lion Hill Scenic 
area. Tired. You I thought you were about to hug a tree. I was cuz I’m so tired from the 
wow lack of oxygen. Look at the views. This is so cool. Wa wow. The rooftops are all 
like matching perfectly like gray. [Music] Let’s go. I think in front of me looks like 
the most Chinese temple I could imagine. Yeah, it’s just so incredible. And the crazy thing is 
there’s hardly anyone in this area yet down in the ancient city. It’s quite busy. So this is Wangu 
Pavilion and this was built in 1997 and I think it’s about five stories tall. We’re going to go 
to the top and we’re going to hope that we can see Jade Dragon Mountain which is like the huge 
peak which we are hoping to climb in a couple of days time. All over China when there’s like 
tourist areas you have so many rules and signs. No smoking, caution slip, caution drop down. 
I’m guessing drop down means full. Yeah. So, I think the mountain is in this direction, 
but it’s too cloudy, unfortunately. Wow. That looks incredible. That looks so good. I think 
I’ve got ice cream in my matcha. That’s kind of cool. This is coffee beans, which actually come 
from Yunan. And Yunan is basically the epicenter of Chinese coffee. I think 98% of all the coffee 
beans in China come from Eunan and it’s all Araba so it’s very very high quality. Apparently a lot 
of Starbucks in the US actually import coffee from Eunan. So if you had a Starbucks before chances 
are it’s come from here. The architecture here is so cool and it such a unique place. We haven’t 
really been to somewhere quite like this in China. This is one of the more quiet streets, but 
a lot of the streets feel extremely just built for tourism, for local tourism, 
and a little bit like a Disney park, like lots of places in China. They’re a dog fight 
going on. They have a lot of these massive fluffy mountain dogs here. Lyn Jang feels like a place 
where history has been carefully preserved. Its cobblestone streets, wooden canals, and 
traditional Knaxi architecture makes it feel almost frozen in time. The next morning, we 
took an early bus ride to the Tiger Leaping Gorge to experience what might be one of 
the most beautiful hikes in China. It’s a lot of confusion here as to where we’re 
going, and not many people speak English, so we’re just sat in a new van. We’re going 
to get there at some point, hopefully. [Music] We have just arrived at one of the most incredible 
views we’ve seen in all of our travels throughout China. Look at this in front of us. Look at the 
clouds right now. It looks insane. It almost looks cooler with the clouds because you can see like 
how actually tall it is. We have some very scenic toilets but a little bit basic. We literally got 
a hole in the ground. But I mean, when you look at the view, it’s not too bad. Just don’t look 
at the toilet. Now, we’re going to be starting a hike all the way along the Tiger Leaping Gorge 
to like the bottom where we’ll be picked up later today. And this hike, this section of the hike is 
supposed to be one of the best in the whole area. And it’s going to take about 2 hours to decline 
down the mountain. But these views in front of us, so crazy, isn’t it? There’s poop all over the 
floor, but I don’t know what animal it’s from. Must be from deers or something up there. I can’t 
believe how big this village is. Like, there is so many guest houses. There’s different restaurants 
and stuff. Found our first pizza oven in China. That is huge. That’s not It can’t just be for 
pizzas. No, I doubt it’s actually a pizza oven cuz I don’t think pizza’s huge here. We haven’t 
really seen any pizza in China. The only thing we have seen is durian pizza, which I definitely 
wouldn’t be a fan of. Joel. Okay, if you know me, you know I have a very big fear of spiders. And 
one thing I don’t like about China is they have a lot of spiders. They’ve got at least certain 
black and yellow ones. I don’t know if you can see this whole area is crawling with them. There 
is There’s got to be at least Wow. There’s got to be at least 20 there. Oh, there’s so many [Music] 
coffee. An iced latte. Iced latte. Cheers. Cheers. I didn’t expect to have a iced coconut 
latte on top of this mountain. I can see the sun peeking in. Yeah, I 
might need my sunglasses soon. That was a nice little stop off. It’s starting 
to get a bit warmer as well. I think we must be at a lower elevation, but our phones won’t 
show us because our Sims aren’t from China. So, the clouds are starting to rise and 
like come off the mountains now. And we didn’t actually realize how flipping 
tall these mountains are. Now, apparently, this is one of the deepest gorgees in 
the world. And from the very peak to the uh base of the river is 3,800 m at the tallest 
point, which is just mental, isn’t it? It’s crazy. That’s like three times the tallest mountain 
in the UK. Oh, there’s a little puppy. Okay, Tina’s guest house, so he must be this way. 
Hello, mister. Hello. He’s a cute little puppy, isn’t he? Puppy. I’m not going to lie, I think 
both Joel and I expected this to be a bit more of a rural kind of nature hike. And there’s 
actually quite a lot of buildings around and a lot of tourists. There’s been quite a few almost 
tour groups. I’ve seen a guy in a full-on Gucci tracksuit. He doesn’t really look like he’s ready 
to hike, so it’s not exactly what we expected. These views are actually insane. The reason 
this place is called Tiger Leaping Gorge is the story is goes that at the narrowest point 
which is like 25 m across the river. A tiger was known to jump across it when he was 
trying to escape hunters. Unfortunately, there’s not any tigers around this area 
anymore, but that’s why it’s called Tiger Leaping Gorge. You all right over there? 
I’m just taking in the views. Good. Wow. This scenery is insane. And 
he fell down the mountain. I don’t know if you saw that. Don’t do that. We’re now coming up to this waterfall. Hopefully, 
we don’t get too wet, but Oh, wow. I’ve just seen more of the mountains are coming out now. Could 
be a bit slippy. [Music] Slippy on that little bit through the waterfall. Crazy though, the 
water. There’s another waterfall down there, but you can’t really see it. You could only see 
it from the drone. We found another waterfall. And I’m glad I’ve got waterproof shoes on. We 
basically have to walk through the waterfall, don’t we? Yeah. We’re literally walking through 
a waterfall. That’s cold. It’s cold. I was so busy showing off my waterproof shoes that 
the water went up in the ankle and got in my shoes anyway. Are they wet? Yeah, my socks 
are wet. Oh no. We’ve got a goat on the side. You scared of the goat? Yes. He’s all right. Hey, goat. He’s probably just wants some food, 
doesn’t he? Yeah. We’ve begun descending down the gorge now. And it is The sun’s come out. 
It’s actually getting quite hot, which is surprising because I thought we’re at altitude, 
but I don’t really know what altitude we’re at because I think our phones rely on Google Maps 
and obviously Google Maps doesn’t work here. So, doesn’t say what altitude we’re at. Tina’s 
guest house. More goats. Is that a baby goat? A [Music] rain has started to come down a little 
bit, although it’s not too heavy. But we’ve only got about 20 minutes until we are at the point at 
which we’ll be picked up, which is Tina’s guest house. And I’m not getting bored of these views. 
They’re absolutely insane. We’ve arrived at Tina’s guest house, which is our pickup location in about 
an hour’s time. So, probably just going to sit and chill. Maybe have some water or something. Yeah, 
I need some water. What a hike this is. I think if you’re a bit more adventurous, I would definitely 
recommend doing the two-day hike and then you can stay up at the halfway house where we begun 
our hike today. Uh I think I would definitely recommend doing that if you’ve got the time. We 
just don’t have the time. Unfortunately, not. I think that is the best bit of the hike and it 
honestly was beautiful and we really enjoyed it. Bye-bye. We have arrived and it’s like 7:15 
and this place is so busy. I It’s like a theme park already. It is so early. I thought 
we were going to come and avoid the crowds. We have escaped the crowds and welcome to Jade 
Dragon Mountain. Now, this area which we are in right now is called the Blue Moon Valley and 
it’s supposed to be a very beautiful part and hopefully not as busy for now. Anyway, the funny 
thing is Joel’s like, “Oh, we’re at blue. We’re at Jade Dragon Mountain.” And we actually have 
no idea which direction it’s in because it’s so cloudy that we can’t see any mountains. And 
as you can probably see, it’s raining. So, this turquoise color, apparently, it comes 
from the copper ions in the region and the limestone. Um, and that’s why it’s this like 
vivid uh turquoise color. And when it’s sunny, apparently it can be even more turquoise. But 
got a lot of cloud today. It looks like the color of like the Philippines or something. Yeah. 
literally like Gatorade water. A lot colder than the Philippines. The crazy thing about this 
Blue Moon Valley is that it’s not actually fully natural. It’s been partly man-made. 
There used to be a river running down it, but they basically damned it all up with these 
waterfalls and basically made this scenic spot to make it like look more beautiful, but the 
water’s definitely coming from the glassier up at the top of the mountain, which we can’t 
see. And the water actually flowing is is real. So, I guess it would probably just be a normal 
river, but they’ve made it like into these five I think it’s five different glacia lakes. Pretty 
cool. It’s beautiful. They’ve done a good job, but it’s not natural. They’ve just created their 
own tourist attraction only in China. Yeah, you can actually see some of the trees in the 
water and then I guess you can kind of see that they flooded the area to make these lakes so blue 
and aqua. It is amazing how the actual color is so natural. It is, isn’t it? ‘s fate, isn’t it? 
I think the pool at the top has definitely got to be the most turquoise. Maybe because it’s 
really still here as well, but it looks like a a milky blue. It’s stunning, especially 
against like the dark green trees, the pine pine forest. Not no fern forest. We’re not good 
with our tree names clearly. No, definitely not. We have just got back to the tourist center 
where we would go back and go to another one of the spots, Spruce Meadow, which isn’t the most 
popular spot, but we just saw the cues and the waiting halls. And honestly, we don’t want to be 
sitting in the cues for what could be an hour or so. The other most popular one, the Glacia, can be 
waiting hours of up to 3 hours, and we’re not here in the nature to be waiting around for hours. I 
mean, I’d like to go up the mountain, but I don’t want to wait 3 hours for a busy cable car to be 
surrounded by 10,000 other people. I think we’re going to end our trip here very short because it’s 
only like 10:30 a.m. and we’re going to head back to the city now. Our time in Yunan has shown 
us a completely different side of China. One of diverse cultures, breathtaking landscapes, and 
traditions that have been preserved for centuries. It’s a side of the country far removed from the 
fast-paced mega cities and one that gave us an experience we’ll never forget. But while Yunan 
might feel untouched by time, there’s one thing that’s changing fast. Tourism. China’s domestic 
tourism has exploded with more than 5 billion trips made inside the country every year. And 
here in Yunan, we could already see how quickly this hidden corner of China had been discovered, 
even though there’s few foreign tourists about.

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We explore one of the provinces in China, which foreigners outside the country know little about, far away from Beijing and Shanghai, Yunnan is one of the most diverse and beautiful regions of China. We explore different parts of the province from the Yuanyang rice terraces, Jianshui and the beautiful town of Lijiang, we also taken on one of China’s most incredible hikes along the Tiger leaping gorge.

Jacky’s Guesthouse – https://www.booking.com/hotel/cn/jacky-39-s-guesthouse.en.html?aid=7957812&no_rooms=1&group_adults=2
Lijiang Guesthouse – https://www.booking.com/hotel/cn/ge-ge-wu-ke-zhan.en.html?aid=7957812&no_rooms=1&group_adults=2

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0:00 – Intro
0:46 – The Rural south of China
7:55 – Wild town of Jianshui
11:38 – Old town of Lijiang
15:33 – Scenic toilet…
15:48 – China’s most incredible view
22:22 – Jade dragon mountain
24:24 – China’s tourism problems…