How the Dongchuan farmers painted with the countryside with their crops.
In the northeast of the city of Kunming, in China’s Yunnan Province, is Dongchuan, a rural county tucked deep into the folds of the Wumeng mountains. Spanning over 30 miles, the valley is hemmed with rolling hillsides where the fiery red soil could easily be mistaken as a painting.
According to local folklore, when God was passing through this valley, he accidentally knocked over his palette and dropped his paint here.
Though Dongchuan is often referred to as the color palette of the gods, it is actually the wonderful creation of generations of farmers, whose collective toil has turned this inherently inhospitable land from grazing pastures to vast swathes of multicolored farmlands. A careful selection of drought-resistant crops and the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices have worked wonders for Dongchuan, which is slowly waking up to the future potential of tourism.