Longji Rice Terraces Longsheng China the Devils Backbone

 

Humans have been very innovative when it comes to expanding agricultural land and remaking the earths surface to suit themselves.  We are remaking natural landscapes into cultural landscapes, and smaller and smaller proportions of the earths surface are truly natural.  

Normally rice terraces like these are filled with water because large amounts of standing water are needed for rice farming.  It's also one of the reasons rice farming has not been mechanized like other forms of agriculture, too much water causing rust and other problems for machinery.  This is why you will see this mostly done by hand with farmers in the fields pulling weeds and working the crops.  

As you can see there is a good size village here, this is called the devils backbone because locals felt like it looked like the scales of a dragon going down the sides of this mountain valley.  These fields did not have standing water when I visited.  I had read in many geography books that natural springs are used to fill these for rice harvests but the locals said there had been a water shortage so they had to switch to other crops.  I don't know if this was a short term or long term problem, but maps of the region do show like many other agricultural regions to be having more and more trouble getting adequate sources of water.  Can you tell what crops are being grown since these are not the usual rice crops?

In some of these pictures you can see people being carried by a litter which is a form of transportation that has been used in many countries, especially in ancient times.  It is simply two poles with a chair in the middle and some tourists will pay to be carried because it is quite the climb to get to the top where the most scenic photos are taken.  I didn't pay to be carried myself, but I saw several others being carried.  

You can see the crop I was talking about earlier drying out here.  This crop needs much less water and is quite a bit smaller than the size of a rice crop would be, but these are also specialty products which earn a higher price than rice.  Any guesses?  Any fans of Chinese food?  I have some closer pictures below. 

This is a closer picture of those carriers I was talking about.

They started building these here about 700 years ago, you can see some grave stones I came across as I climbed.

Yes, you can finally see the crop here, peppers!  I was able to have a great dinner which was mostly peppers and an amazing view you can see here.  You have probably heard people talk about how Chinese food is in fact very different in China than it is in other countries.  That is because often they are influenced by local cultures, so when I have had Chinese food in America compared to for example, Germany of Egypt, it was quite a bit different in each place but dishes with red peppers were quite similar across cultures.  We decided to take a van rather than hike back, and met a man and his pet duck.  He said it was his pet but honestly I am not sure if much of our discussion translated well so he could have been saying dinner for all we know.    

Globalization of the Board Game from Macau China to Minnesota USA

Everybody has played a board game at some time in their lives.  It might have been something simple like monopoly or clue, but it might have also been something more complex like Dungeons and Dragons.  I have some friends who work for a local to Minnesota board game company called Fantasy Flight Games.  

At least it used to be a local company, it has now expanded it's reach which has become the norm under our era of strong globalization.  Globalization is the processes heightening interactions, increasing interdependence, and deepening relations across country boundaries.  This company, like many others in this era, were competing against other companies which would outsource different parts of their production to cut costs.  Many companies found out that if they didn't also take similar steps they would be unable to compete.  Many companies also wanted to use globalization as an opportunity to expand the range of places they sell to in addition to produce in. 

Fantasy Flight Games used to produce and assemble their games in Roseville Minnesota, but they switched to Macau China.  You can see some of the walking district here of Macau.  If any of you have been to Portugal, you might find the cultural landscape here similar, especially the Roman Catholic Church and the patterns in the sidewalks.  That is because Macau is a former colony of Portugal.  

Macau: Where the Dice Roll Differently

Now, if you’re thinkin’ “Why Macau?”—well, it ain’t just some random port city. Macau is the only place in China where casinos are legal. That's right. While the rest of the country is folding their cards, Macau’s going all in. It rakes in more gambling revenue than even Las Vegas. And that status as a global gaming hotspot? Well, it doesn’t just bring in tourists—it also means the region knows a thing or two about games, logistics, and high-stakes production. So naturally, it becomes a place where companies like Fantasy Flight Games say, “Ya know what? Let’s build our whole dang factory here too.”

Cultural Ping-Pong: When East and West Play the Same Game

Now here’s where it gets kinda neat. This isn’t just a story about where the plastic bits are made. It’s also a story about ideas. See, for centuries, folks in China have been playin’ games like Go and Xiangqi—games where the point ain’t always to obliterate the other side but to outthink 'em slowly, carefully, like coaxing a fish through the ice. Western designers have started to pick up on those mechanics, blending them into new creations. So what you’ve got is this lovely cross-cultural ping-pong match, where each side’s tossing ideas back and forth across the Pacific, and the games that hit our shelves are the rally.

My friend who works for Fantasy Flight Games took these photos, and he is in no way a professional photographer so you will have to excuse that they sometimes cut off buildings or whatnot.  Many cities in China and around the world have pedestrian only areas for shopping or just to spend their free time out and about in the city.  

Local Impact: Whose Job is it Anyway?

But here’s the kicker, and it’s one worth chewin’ on. While all this tech and globalization make things faster and cheaper, there’s always a shadow to the light. When jobs shift overseas, what happens to the folks who used to print, pack, or paint those game pieces in Minnesota? Are they gettin’ retrained? Hired elsewhere? Or just told, “Well... best of luck to ya.” It's a hard question. And it’s one we’ve gotta keep askin’, especially as more of our lives—games, groceries, gadgets—float across oceans on shipping containers.

These round things on the ceiling are incense burners.  These are just some of the things you would see if you were walking around this area.  When Fantasy Flight Games outsourced their game production, they simply took the exact same set up they had in Roseville Minnesota and put it in place there.  You can see in these pictures an area where people assemble the board games.  As much of the process has been automated as possible as you can see.

In addition to assembling the games in their boxes, there are also design elements that are done in a mixture of in China and still at the base of operations in Minnesota.  You can see in these photos the creation and design of some board game pieces.  Artists in both areas will work on different figures and they will send images and 3D scans of the pieces as they go. 

You can see here in these pictures the plastic molds the pieces are made in.  

Here, you can see where the cards that go with the games are printed out.  Since they are an international company, they can just switch languages and try to expand the range of their products.  That is why you see so many different languages on all of these cards and games. 

Playing cards, before a language is put on them.

The hope also in locating your factory in China is the hopes you can get into that huge market.

Here you see many other popular games that they make like simple puzzles, to my little pony, oink, to the less known Cthulhu.  They also have the rights for better known games from Star Wars to Lord of the Rings.  

Puzzles are very popular internationally.

Some familiar and unfamiliar game pieces?

Here is the factory cafeteria, everybody brings their own teapot.  

The hope is that they will also sell in the local Chinese market as there are many potential consumers.  This is a board game shop near their base of operations in China.  You can run into some problems however, some of these games in the picture are bootlegs which are technically illegal but widely available in China as well as other places.  You can imagine how this would hurt sales of your own products if there are copies for sale already and at half the price. Also pictured here, some of the staff going out for lunch. 

The hope is local gaming locations will sell your games, but what they found out happening was lots of bootlegs or fake versions of their games were also for sale.  As you can imagine, this makes people question if they can really get into the Chinese market if fakes are coming out that are less expensive than your real deal?

China has a huge share of international manufacturing, as you can see here from the shipping area. 

So many shipping containers cross the ocean for distant lands.

These very last photos are just of the hotel my friend was staying in when he was there, I honestly think he was just trying to show off and it worked.