The Southern Sichuan Bamboo Sea to create an industry for local residents

The Streaming down the Yangtze team has arrived in Sichuan Province and visited the Southern Sichuan Bamboo Sea, a national level scenic spot near the city of Yibin.

The extensive growth of bamboo has created an industry for local residents.

The extensive growth of bamboo has created an industry for local residents. [Photo: China Plus]

For that end,  CRI host Shane Bigham had a conversation with our reporter Yang Guang who is on the trip.

1.Tell us more about the Southen Sichuan Bamboo Sea and what makes it special for travelers to visit.

Southern Sichuan Bamboo Sea is a place bordering three provinces, namely Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunan. On the top of the area we could see Guizhou's Chishui and Yunnan's Shuifu, which we had visited on the previous two days. The whole place of Bamboo Sea covers an area of 120 square kilometers, equivalent to over 160 Forbidden Cities. It is one of the four unique views of the Southern Sichuan Province together with dinosaur fossils, hanging coffins and stone forestry.

Bamboo is a very special element in Chinese culture. There is a old saying that people would rather eat without meat than live without bamboo views. This quite explain the beautiful scenery of Bamboo Sea. There people can enjoy very fresh air and clean water. And it has many cultural relics and historic sites screened by green bamboo. Some scenes of the movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Draggen" had been shot there.

Additionally, we were told by workers there that by the National Day holiday this year, which is October 1st, four pandas will be introduced and raised in the Bamboo Sea this year. That would make the site even more attractive.

2. Is there any ecological significance about the Bamboo Sea for local eco-system development? What is it?

The name of Bamboo Sea is given not only because the huge size of the bamboo growing site, but more importantly because of the great amount of bamboo species, especially those rare ones that can only grow locally. 

In 2007, a specialty scientific bamboo monitoring station was built in Bamboo Sea. It's the first such station to be set up in Sichuan and only the ninth of the same kind nationwide.

Besides bamboo, the place has many other variety of trees and animals including some rare ones that need special care to avoid extinction.

Therefore protecting the area of Bamboo Sea is not only about preserving bamboo species but also keeping the biological diversity of the area, which makes it vital important for the ecological protection in the middle stream area of Yangtze River.

3. Besides tourism, how do local people develop other bamboo related businesses?

After tourism turns prosperous and mature, local residents managed to create peripheral products like bamboo food, mainly bamboo shoots and bamboo art craft.

A tour to the beautiful and elegant Bamboo Sea in this way turns a tour to the unique bamboo culture of long history, a tour more mysterious and interesting.

Many farmers run home based restaurants within the tour site and form a whole industry chain from bamboo planting to bamboo product sales.

Meantime after the scale of bamboo cultural products expand, some bamboo theme streets and cultural centers have been set up.

Farmers working in traditional bamboo planting are supported by local government because it means more effective ecological protection.