A worker adds coal to power the train.

The narrow gauge railway-only 76.2 centimeters instead of the standard 144 cm-stretches for 19.84 kilometers, with the trains reaching a top speed of 20 km per hour.

One-way tickets are priced at 5 yuan (73 US cents) for seated passengers and 3 yuan for standing passengers on the ordinary trains, regardless of whether they are traveling empty-handed or with animals and vegetables.

But Li Cuirong, 45, who has worked as a train dispatcher for more than 20 years, recommends tourists pay 80 yuan for a sightseeing train, as the carriages, which have 37 seats, are more comfortable and air-conditioned. A one-way trip takes about one and a half hours.

As the train winds through the mountain, passengers can view chickens and geese wandering among the orange trees, butterflies dancing over the paddy fields and lotus ponds, and farmhouses in bamboo groves.