World Heritage Identification Number: 1111
World Heritage since: 2013
Category: Cultural Heritage
WHE Type: Agriculture Landscapes, Parks & Gardens
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇨🇳 China
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Asia and the Pacific
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The Resilient Harmony of the Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces
The Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013, offers a captivating glimpse into the harmonious coexistence of human civilization and nature. Situated in the Yuanyang County of Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan, China, this cultural landscape covers an expansive area of 16,603 hectares, nestled within the towering Ailao Mountains and extending to the banks of the Hong River.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, China covers 16,603-hectares in Southern Yunnan. 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. They have also created an integrated farming system that involves buffalos, cattle, ducks, fish and eel and supports the production of red rice, the area’s primary crop. The inhabitants worship the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, forests and other natural phenomena including fire. They live in 82 villages situated between the mountaintop forests and the terraces. The villages feature traditional thatched “mushroom” houses. The resilient land management system of the rice terraces demonstrates extraordinary harmony between people and their environment, both visually and ecologically, based on exceptional and long-standing social and religious structures.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (iii): The Honghe-Hani terraces are an outstanding reflection of elaborate and finely tuned agricultural, forestry and water distribution systems that are reinforced by long-standing and distinctive socio-economic-religious systems. Red rice, the main crop of the terraces is farmed on the basis of a complex, integrated farming and breeding system within which ducks fertilise the young rice plants, while chickens and pigs contribute fertiliser to more mature plants, water buffalo slough the fields for the next year’s planting and snails growing in the water of the terraces consume various pests. The rice growing process is sustained by elaborate socio-economic-religious systems that strengthen peoples’ relationship with the environment, through obligations to both their own lands and to the wider community, and affirm the sacredness of nature. This system of dual interdependence known as the ‘Man-God Unity social system’ and its physical manifestation in the shape of the terraces together form an exceptional still living cultural tradition.
Criterion (v): The Honghe Hani Rice terraced landscape reflects in an exceptional way a specific interaction with the environment mediated by integrated farming and water management systems, and underpinned by socio-economic-religious systems that express the dual relationship between people and gods and between individuals and community, a system that has persisted for at least a millennium, as can be shown by extensive archival sources.
Encyclopedia Record: Honghe Hani Rice Terraces
The Honghe Hani Rice Terraces are the system of Hani rice-growing terraces located in Yuanyang County, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan, China. The terraces' history spans around 1,200 years. The total area stretches across 1,000,000 acres and four counties: Yuanyang, Honghe, Jinpin and Lüchun, although the core area of the terraces is located in Yuanyang County. In 2013, 16,603 hectares of the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces were listed as a World Heritage Site, because of their outstanding resilient construction, unique social-ecological system, and importance to the Hani people.Additional Site Details
Area: 16,603.22 hectares
Number of Components: 1
(v) — Outstanding example of traditional human settlement
Coordinates: 23.0932777778 , 102.7799805556
Image
© Jialiang Gao, www.peace-on-earth.org, CC BY-SA 3.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
World Heritage Research
Discover scientific research and academic studies that deepen our understanding of Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces from its history and significance to its conservation, management, and contemporary challenges.
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Transformations of water governance and social authority in the Hani Rice Terraces
Sustainable governance of the UNESCO-listed Honghe Hani Rice Terraces hinges on integrating historical coordination rules with modern policy design, rather than reverting to traditional systems. The study reveals strong institutional continuity in water management and social authority across political regimes—from native chieftaincy to contemporary household responsibility systems—which has underpinned the terraces' resilience for centuries. While recent restoration efforts have improved biophysical conditions, fragmentation of social organizations and unequal access to resources have increased vulnerability. The research employs a topographic impact model linking terrain-driven water flows with governance nodes, using archival data, gazetteers, and policy documents to trace the evolution of irrigation networks and coordination mechanisms. Revitalizing collaborative institutions and clarifying multi-level rights can enhance long-term sustainability of this coupled human-water system.
Sun, J., Cai, Y. Y., Hua, L. H., & Cheng, Z. F. (2026). Transformations of water governance and social authority in the Hani Rice Terraces. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2025.1687976
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Spatial-semantic interaction guided network for mapping Honghe Hani Rice Terraces via remote sensing
A novel spatial-semantic interaction-guided network (SSIGNet) achieves unprecedented accuracy in mapping the UNESCO-listed Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, with an intersection over union (IoU) score of 87.44%. This breakthrough addresses longstanding challenges posed by fragmented terrace morphology and complex boundaries, which have hindered precise remote sensing analysis. The SSIGNet integrates a spatial-semantic interaction fusion module (SSIFM) and a boundary guidance module (BGM), enabling high-resolution delineation of terraces across varying scales and morphological features. Outperforming nine other methods on the Yuanyang Terraces dataset, this approach offers critical technical support for heritage protection, ecological management, and agricultural sustainability in one of China's most iconic cultural landscapes.
Zheng, S., Huang, L., Su, B., Zhang, B., & Tang, B. (2026). Spatial-semantic interaction guided network for mapping Honghe Hani Rice Terraces via remote sensing. Npj Heritage Science, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s40494-026-02767-2
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Effects of Altitude, Slope Aspect, and Soil Depth on Soil Properties and Herbaceous Root Distribution in Honghe Hani Rice Terraces
Research reveals that soil physical properties and nutrient contents in the Yuanyang Hani Terrace system exhibit distinct patterns influenced by altitude, slope aspect, and soil depth. Soil bulk density follows a unimodal trend along elevation gradients, with mid-elevations showing optimal conditions for porosity and infiltration rates, while high elevations present the poorest conditions. Shady slopes generally outperform sunny slopes, particularly at mid-elevations, where aspect-induced differences in bulk density are most pronounced. An unusual combination of high bulk density with peak porosity and infiltration rates was observed in the 20–40 cm soil layer, attributed to compaction-induced pore configuration changes that preserve preferential flow pathways. Nutrient levels vary significantly, with total potassium and available phosphorus peaking at low elevations due to chemical weathering intensity and plant uptake competition. Root systems are predominantly concentrated in the surface layer (0–20 cm), showing strong positive correlations with soil moisture and porosity, and negative correlations with bulk density. Principal component analysis indicates that physical hydrological processes are the primary drivers of environmental differentiation, explaining 73.4% of the variance. These findings provide a theoretical basis for sustainable management of terrace agroecosystems.
Huang, L., Zhang, X., Wang, X., Wang, R., Wang, R., Zhang, X., & Sun, Y. (2026). Effects of Altitude, Slope Aspect, and Soil Depth on Soil Properties and Herbaceous Root Distribution in Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. Plants, 15(14), 2144. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15142144
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Intelligent route optimization for agricultural heritage tourism using deep reinforcement learning
Deep reinforcement learning significantly enhances route optimization for agricultural heritage tourism, achieving up to 31.6% improvement in sustainability compliance while increasing tourist satisfaction by 18.5% and route efficiency by 23.3% compared to traditional methods like genetic algorithms. The study introduces the Dueling Double Deep Q-Network (D3QN) framework, which integrates multi-objective constraints such as seasonal farming activities, ecological sensitivity, and socio-cultural heritage preservation into dynamic route planning for UNESCO World Heritage Sites like the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. Operating in a simulated environment, D3QN demonstrates real-time inference capabilities with low latency (~150ms per route) and adaptability to varying tourist preferences, offering a promising solution for sustainable tourism management in agricultural heritage systems.
Sun, J. (2026). Intelligent route optimization for agricultural heritage tourism using deep reinforcement learning. Discover Artificial Intelligence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-026-01895-9
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Feeding Waters
Centuries-old agricultural landscapes, including the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in China, demonstrate how adaptive practices can sustain food security, livelihoods, and biodiversity while working with natural water cycles. A comparative analysis of four traditional systems reveals their resilience stems from dynamic adaptation to environmental and socio-economic shifts, rather than rigid practices. Key lessons highlight circular water and nutrient flows, climate adaptability, the interdependence of food, ecology, and society, and the benefits of nature-based production over monocultures. However, these systems face threats from aging farming populations and urban expansion, which can disrupt their ecological foundations. The study advocates for adaptive agro-landscape planning to preserve these sustainable models in modern contexts.
Rey-Hernández, C., Ali, N., Surajara, R., & Yuan, Y. (2026). Feeding Waters. Circular Water Stories. https://doi.org/10.59490/mt.213.104
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Climate Adaptability Analysis of Traditional Dwellings in Mountain Terraced Areas: A Case Study of ‘Mushroom Houses’ in the Hani Terraces of Yunnan, China
Traditional Hani 'Mushroom Houses' in the Honghe Rice Terraces of Yunnan, China, demonstrate remarkable climate adaptability through passive design strategies that stabilize indoor environments despite high temperatures, humidity, and significant diurnal variations. A 30-year meteorological analysis revealed that building orientation (northwest-facing), multi-story zoning, thick walls, and thatched roofs play critical roles in regulating thermal comfort. Field measurements confirmed the effectiveness of natural ventilation and climate-buffering storage layers in maintaining stable conditions. The study provides empirical evidence for optimizing traditional dwellings to enhance insulation and ventilation, offering sustainable solutions for similar climatic regions.
Hu, L., Liu, Y., Li, X., & Yan, P. (2025). Climate Adaptability Analysis of Traditional Dwellings in Mountain Terraced Areas: A Case Study of ‘Mushroom Houses’ in the Hani Terraces of Yunnan, China. Atmosphere, 16(5), 608. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16050608
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Impacts of land use change on ecosystem service degradation within a traditional circular agroecosystem: a case study of the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces
Land use changes between 1990 and 2020 have significantly degraded ecosystem services within the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. The study found that paddy rice areas shrank by 36.35 km² (24.83%), primarily converting to forest and cropland, which led to a decline in habitat quality despite a 16.61% increase in carbon storage. Soil retention and water yield services also decreased by 14.43% and 11.74%, respectively. Areas with high sensitivity to habitat degradation (32.71%) and geological hazards (38.82%) expanded, posing risks to the terrace system's resilience. Conversely, soil erosion-sensitive areas declined by 48.84%. The research used land use change mapping and ecosystem service evaluation models to assess these impacts, proposing pathways for optimizing and conserving traditional agroecosystem functions.
Zhang, L., Yang, W., Song, J., & Chen, H. (2025). Impacts of land use change on ecosystem service degradation within a traditional circular agroecosystem: a case study of the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. Circular Agricultural Systems, 5(1), 0. https://doi.org/10.48130/cas-0025-0005
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