Tucked away in a bamboo sea

Local craftsman makes and sells bamboo ware to tourists in the park. [Photo by Li Yang/China Daily]

In the middle of Wudi Peak is a 12.8-meter tall bronze statue of the head of a Longevity God, behind which is a screen wall inscribed with 68 Chinese characters of Shou, or longevity, in different handwriting genres.

Beside the statue are three stone monkeys－the first one covering its ears with its paws, the second one its eyes, and the last one, its mouth. The three monkeys stand for a philosophy of detachment popular among the local people, who believe that longevity comes more from meditation, than hearing, seeing and speaking. The hollow tube of a bamboo plant is also representative of the philosophy.

The local people's lives are inseparable from bamboo. Almost all their life necessities, building materials and agricultural tools are made from bamboo. Children learn early to plant bamboos and make them into useful things.

The most skillful bamboo weavers and carvers in these villages now perform for tourists in a bamboo museum in the center of the reserve. In their eyes, all parts of the bamboo are useful. They do not use any electrical machines, but only their hands and some simple iron tools. There is also a show of bamboo music, played on traditional Chinese musical instrument made from bamboo.

A must-see near the bamboo museum is a grand panda pavilion, where two young grand pandas, named Olympia and Zhuang Mei, are housed. The bamboo forest provides the couple with plenty fresh food.

Local restaurants offer tea and liquor made from bamboo, bamboo shoots, rice steamed in bamboo pipes and many kinds of food originating from bamboo that are beyond the visitor's expectations.

There is a bamboo delicacy that the villagers served a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) emperor who had escaped from rebels to the inland Anhui province from Nanjing, once a capital of late Ming Dynasty. The old official road through which the emperor passed is still well preserved. Not far from the old road are 24 old pine trees planted in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and several ancient stone tablets. The inscription on the tablets, though mostly unreadable because of the years of weathering, calls for the people to protect the bamboo forest.