The Jinning-Simao Highway zigzags some 300 kilometers from Kunming, the provincial capital, and makes an abrupt turn at this        cliff deep in the Ailao Mountains, leaving a huge rock protruding to confront the driver. Walking to the verge of the cliff, and looking down by the rock, one could see the rugged precipices bottomless deep beneath, with gales roaring from the valley, simply overwhelming.
    Amazingly, lying in the valley are layers of big and small patches of terraced fields. Thousands plots of them, the terraced fields stretch beyond the valley to top the surrounding mountains till the remote skyline.
    Such are the well-known “Terraced Fields of Tiger Mouth” at Panzhihua Town, Yuanyang County of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southern Yunnan. Composed of 113 hectares in the valley and 460 hectares on surrounding mountain slopes, the waves of terraced fields glisten under the autumn sun, as the rice has been reaped and clear water inundated them. The torrents of fields look like a huge mouth to swallow the onlookers up. Hence the name “Tiger Mouth” - the ancient Hani who built the terraced fields worshipped tiger as the most powerful animal so that they compared the prowess and charisma of the fields to tiger.
    The road designer must also have been overwhelmed at the scenario so that he kept the huge rock by the cliff on purpose whereby people could enjoy the spectacular view.
    On that sunny October afternoon in 1995, I, a Hani, and my French friend, Jean Eugene, an anthropologist, reached the cliff.
    At the very sight of the terraced fields, the French scholar trembled as if suddenly struck by something, and was immediately on his knees at the rock. Quite a few moments later did he begin to murmur, “Oh, my God! ... Incredible! ... Oh, my God! ...” Apparently he was overwhelmed at the Terraced Fields of Tiger Mouth.
    That day we sat on the rock for quite a long while, till the sun set.
    I told Jean that there are many stretches of hundreds of hectares of terraced fields like those of Tiger Mouth in Hani mountain villages. In Honghe, Yuanyang, Luchun, Jinping, Jianshui and Shiping counties, wherever there are Hani people, there are spectacular stretches of terraced fields varying in size from hundreds to dozens hundreds of hectares, with those of Tiger Mouth, Jingkou, Quanfuzhuang, Duoyishu, Bada and Dengyun being the most magnificent, not only in areas, but also in layers.
    “What you see is only part of the Tiger Mouth,” I told him. “Beyond the col afar is a river called Tengtiao, which starts continuous terraced fields of 3,000 layers up to the top of the Tiger Mouth.”
    “Miracle! Simply wonder by the God!” he couldn’t help exclaiming.
    Dr. Jean Eugene has conducted field surveys on anthropology in Africa, South America and Japan for years. He remarked that there are terraced fields in those regions as well, yet they are but small plots as compared with the terraced fields created by the Hani people.
    Like myself, Dr. Jean Eugene was an artist while young and is familiar with various art forms. We talked about “earth sculpture” that was once fashionable in the West in the 1940s and 1950s, which attempted to strike visual impact by artificial transformation of landscape, like wrapping a bridge spanning the Seine or some reefs in the Pacific with huge pieces of colorful cloth.
    “Those are nothing in front of Hani people’s terraced fields,” he said, shaking his head. “Your terraced fields are the real earth sculpture in its true sense, and you Hani people are genuine earth artists!”
    I elaborated on the long-standing history and rich cultural implication of the Hani terraced fields. Then he asked curiously: “Why don’t you apply for listing such a wonder into the World Heritage sites?”
    That October afternoon of 1995 became a critical turning point in my life. There and then I made up my mind to make the Hani terraced fields into the list of World Heritage sites. Thus the beginning of my enduring study of terraced fields and World Heritage sites.
    Getting into Hani’s terracedf ields
    To be listed into the World Heritage, a candidate site must be unique, representative and original. This requirement has compelled me to make comparative studies of terraced fields as extensive as possible in order to evaluate the Hani terraced fields.
     Since 1995 I have been to all the regions renowned for terraced fields in Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Taiwan in China. I also made field trips to Thailand, Myanmar and Lao. Then I studied records of famous terraced fields in Mexico, the Philippines, Japan, Russia, Spain and Chile. Terraced fields in these countries and regions differ one another, as some are built on steep mountain slopes, some scattered on rather gently sloping hills, while others extend in the karst terrains - like those in Guangxi and Guizhou. Each has its own history and culture, but none of them could match the terraced fields created by the Hani people in terms of history, farming skills, sizable stretches and aesthetic effect.
    This is the conclusion I have arrived at after years of research, a conclusion made through trekking on many fields and through painful work, and a conclusion made with the help of many friends at home and abroad.
    Based on the extensive research, I completed my first paper on applying for listing the Honghe Hani terraced fields into the World Heritage sites in 1999, which is titled Conception of Establishing a Base to Preserve and Develop the Cultural Wonder of Hani Terraced Fields at Yuanyang. The paper enunciates the historical and cultural basis for the Honghe Hani terraced fields as represented by those of Yuanyang to be made a World Heritage site and the program for its realization. This paper was first delivered at a seminar on how to develop Yunnan by taking advantage of its rich resources of ethnic minorities and later published in the Terraced Fields Culture News of Honghe prefecture, which was acclaimed by both local people and officials. Then I delivered my second paper titled A Study of Applying for Listing Honghe Hani Terraced Fields into World Heritage Sites at the second seminar on Yunnan’s development in 2000. These and other papers authored by me and friends in the academic circles have laid foundation for the prefecture government of Honghe to apply for listing the Hani terraced fields into the World Heritage sites. Now the Chinese government has submitted the application to the World Heritage Committee.