Crouching tiger hidden dragon - The Bamboo forest

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Lately we became interested in Bamboo. The Chinese use bamboo and its products a lot and we became curiose about where all these bamboo poles come from.
We ask Xiu Xiu, the receptionist girl from our hostel where can we find bamboo products and factories, and she, excited, answered - oh, I am from bamboo city!
It is called Anji - 4 hours from Shanghai (not mentioned in the lonely planet), a hilly area full of Bamboo forests and bamboo industry.
Actually some parts of the movie “Namer Drakon” (“Crouching tiger hidden dragon”) were pictured there.

So we took an early morning bus to Anji.
As we got there, we called a bamboo product factory which we found on the internet and ask to come for a visit. 20 minutes later the general manager came with his Nisan Maxima and his marketing manager Kevin (the manager has falula on his face with 3 long curly hairs growing out of it - very metupahot , we think it is honorable here because he is not the first one we meet).
They showed us their products, some of the production line (actually not very impressive) and then we discussed some business…
He took us back to the bus station and we took a local bus to the bamboo forest, called "da zhu hai", which means "sea of bamboo".
Probably there was nothing there before the movie ‘namer drakon’ was filmed, but now the Chinese made a whole park there with impressive omega (which Amir decided it is too frightening, surprisingly Noa was ready to give it a try), sliding cars and other features.
Check the pictures and get the impression.

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Photos

the big bamboo sea - "da zhu hai"
our guest house is in the village below
It is all Bamboo forest around

Safta zapta
The lady from the guesthouse had an electric matka that kills musqitos. she was using it non stop, chasing them all over the place.
2000v between the nets and they have no chane. We bought 3...

Safta zapta in action
They wont escape her...

A dish of bamboo shoots
Only ine of us tried, guess who...

Safta zapta is taking us to the forest
Too many risks for one day - that's why we didn't took the huge omega

A family Bammbo warehouse
Beside the huge facories there are a lot of family warehouses. Most of the residents in the village we stayed in make their living by running guesthouses, small scale agriculture and mainly warehouses like this one. Bunches of cut bamboo poles become huge bamboo carpets. Other factories use that carpets for making baskets, curtains, chairs, bags etc.

Bamboo products factory
a bit too excited to be iso 9001 certificated. There are many big factories around. All have signes in English and proud with their iso9001

Comments

[sophie]

glad to see your blog again
Hi, Noa and Amir: Glad to see your blog again. In my hometown, there is an another bamboo forest, just like the place you went, we called it "shu nan zhu hai","shu" is the simplified name of Sichuan province, "nan" means the south, "zhu" means the bamboo, and "hai" means the sea. "shu nan zhu hai" is in the south part of Sichuan province. The Chinese famous film called "wo hu cang long" -English name "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"was screened partly there. You can see it on:www.dipu.cn Wish every thing goes well with you Sophie

[Dafna Harari]

Happy birthday, Amir!
Hi, Amir and Noa, I can't find your E-mail address, so get it as a comment (a bit too late): Happy Birthday! How did you celbrate it? BTW, you blog is nice, I enjoy reading it and watching your adventures :-) . Keep having fun, Dafna.

[dugit]

No Omega?!?!
I am disappointed. At least a picture... The place looks amazing

[Dugies]

Nice but...
where's the photo of Noa on the omega? it's a must!

[Noa Amir]

to make clear about the omega
none of us did the omega. Noa wanted to do it, but not alone, and since Amir didnt want, we gave it up. sorry... and Maya - we forgot to say that this entry is for you...