Still totally jet-lagged, but I felt awake enough to share a few images from the trip.
While in China I spent a day in the ciy of Anji, known as the City of Bamboo; not without reason. Bamboo was growing all over the surrounding hillsides, and everywhere you looked were immense piles of bamboo being dried, stacked, cut, sorted and trucked to the many factories, large and small, turning the bamboo into wonderful and useful products. Pillows, purses, placemats, chairs, chopsticks, hats, shoes, edible bamboo, and even bamboo beer (which was pretty good.) Everything bamboo.
Unfortunately, no panda sightings.
Bamboo is remarkable for its renewability; the samples shown here are only about a year old, and nearly ready to be harvested.
Getting Down to Business
My work took me to a factory making bamboo flooring, where I saw the entire process of turning the bamboo ‘logs’ into beautiful hardwood floors, ready for shipment around the world.
A careful eye selects the logs to begin the process.
The finished product
In the Anji market, it’s bamboo everywhere.
Everything in this shop (and numerous others) was made of bamboo…except the young lady
Popular bamboo mats
The bottom end of the large bamboo plants are carved into incredible figures.
Wow Mike, more than learning about Apple and Steve Jobs I get to know about China! Amazing!
I have 2 questions: do you know how tall those bamboo trees get? And have you seen any pipe system there using bamboos?
BTW, the beard on those images from the last photo are very nice touch. Never saw anything like this before.
Just one interesting notice: never saw Google ads so right on spot like on this page: all ads are related to bamboo floors.
Amazing stuff.
I sure would like to get my hands on some bamboo flooring.
I’d imagine it’s cheaper than traditional hardwood.
Carlos – yes, aren’t those beards cool? They are actually the bottom part of the bamboo plant (not sure if they are roots); it’s all one piece.
Michael – This is the company that I visited. Not sure if you can buy from them, but I’m sure they could point you to a dealer who sells their stuff.
Wow, you were in China that time? I live in Shanghai…