Over a three day weekend in early May, I decided to once again take advantage of one of the (many) travel organizations I follow on WeChat and get out of Shanghai for a bit. I booked a weekend hiking trip out to 安吉县 Anji County in the 浙江 Zhejiang Province. Quick Chinese geography lesson: Zhejiang is the province just to the south of Shanghai, on the eastern coast of China. Zhejiang, which means winding or zigzagging river, is one of China’s smallest and most densely populated provinces. With over 3,000 islands along its coast, it boasts more islands than any other province in China! (More about those islands in a later post on a later trip…) One of the birthplaces of ancient Chinese civilization, Zhejiang has served as a wealth of information; archaeologists have uncovered historical relics and ruins dating back as early as 7,000 years ago!
About a 4-hour drive from Shanghai, Anji County is home to the 中国大竹海 Anji Bamboo Forest (the direct translation is “China Big Bamboo Sea”). The Anji Bamboo Forest is one of the largest natural bamboo forests anywhere in the world; covering 600 square kilometers (230 square miles), it hosts about 40 different species of bamboo. It’s most recent claim to fame, however, is as a shooting location for the award-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. (I have to be honest, I have never seen the movie. I know, I know, it’s on my list…)
After a few hours on the bus from Shanghai, my group made its way to the hostel we’d be staying in for the next few days. This time I was traveling with a group called Hiking Lovers, and the itinerary for all three days was – you guessed it – filled with different hikes throughout the area! Though I’d certainly seen bamboo around before (in the States as well – there is some right near my parents’ house in Pennsylvania that I’d walk by on my daily survive-the-pandemic-doom-and-gloom walks) I’d never seen quite this much of it. One of the main things that struck me was just how TALL it can grow! And quickly, too – bamboo is the fastest growing plant on the planet. Some species can grow up to 35-40 inches per day! As we walked on our first hike, our guide told us how different areas of the forest were owned by different people; with so many uses (food, construction material, clothing, etc etc etc) it makes sense that bamboo is such a valuable resource to have!
One of my favorite things about hiking in the bamboo forest was using the bamboo itself as a bracing point while making my way up the extremely steep hills. With all of the dry leaves covering the ground, it was very slippery trying to climb up – eventually I realized that if I could Tarzan my way from one plant to the next, pulling myself up and then bracing my feet before reaching out for the next stalk, I could make my way pretty easily. Just like climbing diagonal bamboo monkey bars!
Eventually, we made our way up up up until we reached a pond at the mouth of a cave where we decided to stop for lunch. In typical Madison fashion, I could leave no rock unclimbed, so up into the cave I went! (It’s a real problem. I see a big rock, I want to climb it. I can’t help it…)
Something I’ve loved about using these travel groups to explore different parts of China has been getting paired up with local guides in each of the regions I’ve gone to. Though in previous travels to other countries I’ve prided myself on planning and doing it all without professional help, here in China – where there are so many different languages spoken (and very little English spoken) and rules and regulations that change by the day due to the ongoing pandemic – it has been nice to have guidance and help from those who are local to the area. Our guide in Anji brought us through the backs of various locals’ farms to get to a trail that not many tourists know about. Along the trail, he stopped to point out and pick berries that were growing. He took us off the beaten path to give us an experience that I certainly would not have been able to figure out on my own. On our final hike, he started picking wildflowers along the trail and wove them into a flower crown for a little girl in our group. When he saw that I liked her crown, he started picking more flowers along the trail – soon, I had a crown of my own as well!
Though not as big and epic as most of my other trips, my long weekend in Anji provided a much needed break from the hustle and bustle of the city. Fresh air, green everywhere, and a chance to get my legs (and my lungs) moving – what more could you want?
Adventure in the Great Wide Somewhere 
Obviously I’ve not thought a lot about bamboo, and who knew it even grew close to me if it’s by your parents’ home? Thanks for again enlightened me, and even your wildflower crown is amazing! Continued blessings!
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