Here is what the article on Wikipedia (obviously written by some local government lackey) says:

“Anji county is synonymous with bamboo, containing as it does 60,000 hectares of bamboo groves. It has been designated a pilot county for ecological construction. Within its boundaries are mountains and gullies, lush with forests and vegetation. The air is fresh and the river water is crystal clear.”

And this is how it should really read (I’ll be changing it myself shortly):

“Anji County isn’t a synonym for anything, but it certainly has lots of bamboo. It has been designated a pilot county for how you shouldn’t do ecological construction. Within its boundaries are mountains and gullies, lush with forests and vegetation that you cannot see because of the thick yellow haze that offers you the visual experience of someone with glaucoma. The air is about as fresh as a sumo wrestler’s thong and the river water may have once been clean, but we don’t know for sure because they’re all dried up.”

Now before any Anji locals somehow come across this and start dishing out the hate, let me clarify this. The county of Anji is a large place. Smack in the middle of it is the city district called Dipu and surrounding it are some small dirty suburbs. This is where the problem lies. It was more polluted here than in Hangzhou. I saw lots of small factories with chimneys belching out smoke in colours only an acid trip could make you appreciate. Once you get out of this central area, the air does clear up significantly (but not completely) and there are some vistas and villages straight outta the tourist brochure.

My Chinese friend told me that the food sucks in Anji. When you hear this coming from a Chinese person you suddenly long for the Golden Arches like a sinner for Pearly Gates. Thank someone up there, there is a McDonalds and a KFC and their both a stones throw from each other in Dipu. I must also note that in the same building that houses McDucks there is a large grocery store that stocks western booze. Entertainment being non-existent you should make use of this fact, much like we did. Spending the nights drinking in the hotel room and discussing current world affairs was about as exciting as it got. I saw one or two KTV places but I’m not sure if they’re KTV places or KTV *Wink Wink* places.

What to do there

Knowing that most of Anji is labeled as a “scenic spots” and tourist places, you’ll probably want to avoid the damn place altogether. Why is it that these places are always far crappier than what they’re hyped to be? That said there are some worthwhile things to do if you happen to be here for business or just want to escape Hangzhou for a bit. If it weren’t for the silly entrance fees at everything then I could actually recommend this place for people from farther away. These are the places that I checked out.

The Bamboo Museum (Zhúbóyuán/竹博园)

Are you a kinky bamboo fetishist? Or perhaps giant pandas float your boat? Well if you like both, then today’s your lucky day (if your going to the Bamboo museum today that is). I was most excited about this, because I’ve never seen the giant sloths in real life. Thankfully, unlike most of the wretched zoos in this country, their pen appears new and clean. They are also well fed, perhaps too well fed. If you’re sneaky you can go right down underneath and get right up to the cage where the lazy bastard will be chomping away at bamboo. Don’t get caught doing this, or the keepers will feed you to the pandas. For real.

The Great Bamboo Sea (Dàzhúhǎi/大竹海)

This place is pretty ridiculous. First, you need to take a toll-way to get there and it’s 10rmb for like 1 km of road. You immediately turn off the highway and go through the back roads of these little farm towns, which are actually pretty neat in and of themselves. Parking is 10rmb once you get there, even though it’s low season and no one else is there. Entrance is then another 60 rmb. The place has potential to have some nice hikes, although we didn’t have enough time to explore that option. There is a zip cord like and some other dumb tourist stuff. They’ve also built a tower that allows you to get above the bamboo canopy and look around at the encroaching development and beautiful power lines that dot the hazy horizon. It’s actually more relaxing than that, and can be nice, but I was expecting a lot more. I was expecting to only see bamboo for as far as the eye can see and then have some kung-fu masters pop out of the trees and start fighting each other to the death. What can I say? I set my expectations low.

Reservoir up in the mountain(Chinese name???)

I’m not quite sure why this is even a tourist attraction or why we went there, but I guess Chinese people find it interesting. There is a large reservoir built at the top of a mountain that has partially been turned into something of a place to go see. Again its like 40 or 50 kuai to get into and the park is tiny. Not worth the entrance fee, imo. What was worth it was the crazy car ride up through the mountains to get there. We passed all kinds of people cutting down and working with bamboo, and sometimes it proved to be quite the obstacle. So go just for the drive and the scenes it gives you, but once at the top don’t bother with the reservoir park. It’s a reservoir. On a mountain. That is all.
Some good bets would be to get out of the central town and go hiking. I was also told that in the summer there is very good rafting in some of the rivers. It appeared that the water in the mountains was very clean. So that might be worth a try. I can’t really recommend Anji to anyone who A) isn’t in the Hangzhou vicinity, or B) isn’t going there for business. But if you’ve never been to a bamboo forest before, haven’t seen pandas, and enjoy hiking/climbing insane hills on your bike, then Anji might be just the thing your thing. Also if one of your friends happens to have a girlfriend named Angela, and by chance you’re in Anji and they call you, uhhh yeah.

Filed under: dragons