Anji Bamboo Sea

Anji county is covered in moso bamboo, some sixty thousand hectares of it, and the China Bamboo Expo Garden and the Great Bamboo Sea scenic area present it as landscape: hills of tall green stems running over ridges, with paths, a cable car and viewpoints. Ang Lee filmed the fight in the treetops for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon here in 2000, and the location is signed. The county lives on bamboo commercially as well, producing flooring, furniture, charcoal and shoots, and a museum covers its uses across Chinese life. White tea grown on the same hills is a local speciality, picked in a short spring window.

What you actually see

• The bamboo hills - moso forest covering ridges in every direction.
• The film location - the setting for the Crouching Tiger treetop sequence.
• The bamboo museum - the plant's uses across construction, craft and food.
• The white tea gardens - Anji baicha grown on the same slopes.

When to go

April to October; spring shoots and the white tea harvest fall in April, and the bamboo is greenest through summer. Winter is cold and damp, though snow on bamboo is striking. Weekends bring crowds from Hangzhou and Shanghai.

Honest expectations

Separate scenic areas each charge entry, and the film association is heavily marketed. The bamboo is genuinely impressive but repetitive over a full day. Roads through the county are winding and busy at weekends.

Nearby

Moganshan lies northeast; Hangzhou is south.