Sitting on my wooden balcony at the Longji Ping’an Hotel there is a fine view.  A very fine view.  Except…. I happen to know there is an even finer view just around the corner.  Does that knowledge spoil my current view?  A little bit, if I am being honest.

The hotel is located in Longsheng County, close to Guilin in China, in an area known as the Dragon’s Backbone.  It is a beautiful region of tiered, green rice terraces.  From my veranda I can see a bit of a rice field and a bit of a verdant mountain in the distance, but I am more conscious of the similarly tiered scaffold of human lodgings immediately alongside me––picturesque after their own fashion, only not quite the classic rural vista I might have hoped for.

However, I must remember not to fall into the trap of when in Xanadu being so spoilt as to demand a constant supply of the milk of Paradise.

© E. C. Glendenny

E. C. Glendenny heads off to find her perfect view.