Conjunctions Over Rice Terraces

It was a great show just after sunset. Moon, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter were aligned along the Zodiacal light in the southwest. The image was taken at the UNESCO’s world heritage site, The Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, Yunnan, China. It is marked by spectacular terraces that cascade down the slopes of the towering Ailao Mountains to the banks of the Hong River. Over the past 1,300 years, the Hani people have developed a complex system of channels to bring water from the forested mountaintops to the terraces.