Dragon's Backbone in Chinese is Longji and the rice terraces covers over 16,000 acres, with their creation beginning during the Yuan Dynasty, the terraced fields were mostly built during the Ming Dynasty about 500 years ago. Longji literally means “Dragon’s Backbone” due to the fact that the rice terraces look just like a dragon’s scales, while the mountain’s summit resembles the backbone. Terracing the fields like this not only decreases the chances of erosion, it also helps hold water in place as rice requires a lot of water to grow. The terraced fields are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, the highest part being 880 meters in elevation while the lowest part is 380 meters. The coiling line that starts from the mountain foot up to the mountain top divides the mountain into layers of water glittering in the sun in spring, layers of green rice shoots in summer, layers of golden rice in fall, and layers of silvery frost in winter.