Learning About Bamboo

Did you know that there are several hundred varieties of bamboo? It was new information for me. We learned that 75% of Anji county is covered with vegetation and 71% is forested; there is a lot of bamboo. After lunch at the Sunny Holiday Resort, our hosts took us to the China Bamboo Museum to learn more about the plant we had heard about in our meeting. "With a variety of bamboo species, Anji has actually become the largest bamboo growing and research base in Asia," said an official with Anji County Government, " the bamboo museum ... can not only satisfy the demand of systematical research, but also provide knowledge on the history and culture of bamboo growing and bamboo arts and crafts for an increasing number of tourists." As you can imagine, much of the bamboo grown in Anji is used to produce flooring, furniture, and other products for sale in China. Anji products are now exported to more than 20 countries and regions, and about one-fourth of the county's gross output value of agriculture and industry comes from bamboo-related industries. Here are Mark and John, the Evergreen Timber guys, standing in front of some of the bamboo we saw.

Su Dongpo, a renowned Song dynasty (960-1279) poet, said, "We could eat without meat, but couldn't live away from bamboo."