Anji County (安吉)

Popular with Chinese tourists from Shanghai & Hangzhou, Anji offers a glimpse of rural life amid the bamboo forests.

Get in: Express buses leave Hangzhou's Northern Bus Station every 15 minutes for Anji (24Y).

See:

• The Bamboo Species Museum (Zhu Cao Yuan) claims to be the only museum in the world devoted to this plant. Displays depict the uses of bamboo from the historical to the present day;
• The Big Bamboo Sea (Da Zhu Hai)[1] where the movie "Crouching Tiger; Hidden Dragon" was filmed;
• Silver Diggings Under Heaven (Tian Xia Ying Ken) is a present day movie set in the bamboo forests;
• Dragon King Mountain (Long Wang Shan), Chang Wan Bai Pu and Furong Gu are other scenic spots close to Anji's main town, Dipu;
• Bai Cao Yuan is a man-made landscaped garden on a large scale with mini-zoo, children's playgrounds, swimming beach and several restaurants.

Buy: Anji is famous for "White Tea" as well as green tea. Numerous bamboo products from the hideously kitsch to the moderately useful can be bought in the bamboo products market.