AN'JI - Bamboo Town

The Anji economic development zone was approved as a provincial level zone in 1994, and is a center for ecology-oriented county development. Anji , also known as the Land of White Tea, is home to China's largest bamboo exposition park, at which many scenes for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were filmed. We met the local economic development officials, who led us on a tour of a couple of industrial parks and then to a chair manufacturing facility. We learned there are several chair manufacturing enterprises in Anji. The picture to the left shows John Barber and Mark Ehrhardt talking to the general manager of the facility in a showroom in which were displayed hundreds of office chairs, as well as easy chairs, recliners, and couches.

After the tour, we drove to the Sunny Holiday Resort for a formal meeting with Anji government and development zone officials. The resort and meeting room were nicer than any of the meeting rooms we'd experienced so far on the trip. As with most formal meetings, each person at the table was given a bottle of water and a cup of hot tea. As you can see from the picture, they hung a special banner welcoming us to the meeting. At least that is what we assumed it said... From l. to r., Mr. Huang, a local business owner; Ruilin Yan, deputy director of the Anji Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Bureau; Yenan Zhu, director of the Zhejiang Anji Economic Development Zone; Lucille, Mary, John, Jinshui, Mark; and Hu Liu Sun, director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Huzhou. As you can also see, there was fresh fruit & vegetables on the table, along with fresh flowers. This is typical of most of the meetings we attended in Huzhou.

The order of the meeting followed a pattern that would repeat in most meetings to follow. The number one host went first, introducing everyone on his side of the table, then providing an overview of the economic development in the area. He called on the important attendees, one by one, giving them a chance to introduce their area of interest. Then he invited me or Jinshui to introduce the members of the SBDC delegation. I provided an overview of the SBDC, Jinshui described the International Business Development Program, Lucille talked about the Farmingdale regional center, and John Barber talked about Evergreen Timber and his intention to do business with some Chinese companies. Then we talked about common goals and working together for mutual success. We invited them to visit the SBDC in Albany and to meet some New York businesses. They invited us to return to Anji in the near future. Then we exchanged gifts. A nice luncheon followed, featuring bamboo (cooked) and bamboo juice, two specialties of the region.