-- The Third China Bamboo Cultural Festival

By JIA LAN

Yibin is where the Jinsha and Minjiang Rivers meet and join the Yangtze River, at the southern edge of China's Sichuan Basin.

The mention of Yibin brings to many people's minds its history of distilling, as its Wuliangye, a spirit distilled from five kinds of grain, is well known throughout the country. Yibin is, however, also famous for its bamboo groves, covering a million mu (15 mu = 1 hectare), and was recently site of the third China Bamboo Cultural Festival.

Young People at the Bamboo Products Exposition

"Hello! Welcome to the Sea of Bamboo in Southern Sichuan."

"Hi, would you please have your photo taken with me?"

There were many high school students in the crowd carrying cameras, requesting passers-by to have their photos taken with them, an invitation to which several overseas visitors immediately responded.

This is the Yibin bamboo cultural festival scenario. The local residents never dreamed that so many people would gather in this small city, just for the sake of bamboo.

Having the largest area of bamboo groves and bamboo output, China is the world's top bamboo producer. The Chinese government and INBAR (the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan) have so far jointly held three bamboo cultural festivals, and this was the first one held in western China. All activities during the festival, including a bamboo products exposition, economic and trade talks, seminars and forums, centered around one theme - promoting bamboo culture and the bamboo-related industries, and developing the bamboo economy.

At one part of this bamboo exposition, a young man sat making bamboo root sculptures, and passing overseas visitors gave him the thumbs-up sign. His name is Wang Fangrong, and he comes from Changning County, Yibin. He said, "In my home village there are many mountains and waters, and abundant bamboo. The bamboo plants are cut and fashioned into mats and stools, and any waste is used as firewood." Under the guidance of a fine arts academy professor, Wang Fangrong and more than a dozen other young men established a factory producing bamboo root sculptures. Wang is director of the factory, and its annual sales volume now stands at 500,000 yuan. The examples of these sculptures hanging on the exhibit board are eye-catchingly distinctive.

Wang Fangrong is one of many. Statistics show that 120,000 rural families in Yibin earn an annual income of 80 million yuan from bamboo-related industries.

Flute Melodies at the Seminar

The Chinese people, especially scholars and men of letters, have since ancient times had a liking for bamboo.

The festival gave Chinese and overseas guests the chance to experience the appeal of today's bamboo culture. At the large-scale performance evening, all items on the program, such as songs, dances, poetry, and music, took bamboo as their theme. When young women clad in bamboo-wear -- dresses, hats and ornaments -- appeared on the stage, the audience burst into enthusiastic applause. After the performance, some of the audience went backstage to take a closer look.

Scholars from Japan, Britain, Germany, Columbia, India and China gave talks at seminars held during the festival, when bamboo cultivation and processing were explained and discussed.

During a break at one seminar, melodies of bamboo flute were played. Then a Mr. Wang Wei, formerly a musician with the Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble in Beijing, ascended the rostrum to tell those listening that all this music had been played on bamboo musical instruments, which he also makes himself, and has formed an orchestra of bamboo musical instruments.

There are many countries that have their own unique bamboo musical instruments, such as Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Latin American countries, but China has the widest variety.

The Bamboo Sea Museum in Yibin's Changning County specializes in bamboo culture. In it are displayed all kinds of bamboo artifacts and bamboo cultural relics, including bamboo dwellings, tools, arts and crafts, and also foodstuffs made of bamboo. Bamboo has, over the centuries, blended into the lives of the Chinese people.

INBAR in China

In Yibin, this reporter came across a new term: INBAR. To those engaged in bamboo-related industries, however, it is very familiar.

INBAR (International Network for Bamboo and Rattan) is an organization that developed from a bamboo and rattan research network project financed by the Canadian International Development Research Center (IDRC). It is the first inter-governmental organization to have its headquarters in China.

During the festival, Ian R. Hunter, director general of INBAR, was present at most activities. Since taking office, he has stayed in China and traveled extensively in its bamboo-producing areas. On being interviewed, he confirmed to journalists that promoting and exhibiting bamboo and rattan could bring considerable economic returns. The potential annual income from bamboo products in southeastern China, for instance, is US $15,000 per hectare. Over the past decade, China's export volume of bamboo products has increased seven-fold.

Dr. Lou Yiping, director of the INBAR ecological protection program, told this reporter that poverty can be eradicated through bamboo, and that it is also beneficial to the ecological environment. When a forest is cut, bamboo plants grow very quickly, and their roots spread to the surrounding areas. In ecological conservation projects of recent years, areas of farmland in northern China have been forested or returned to pasture, while in southern China they have been converted into bamboo groves. For Yibin, at its location on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, this measure has particularly far-reaching significance.

Most bamboo plants grow in mountainous areas that are rich in water resources. Such regions have a good natural ecology, but poor transportation access. Bamboo grows very fast, and in spring may mature and reach a height of 10 meters within a month. It can be also planted in domestic gardens, and therefore does not take up arable land.

As one of the main organizers, INBAR has invited to the Third China Bamboo Cultural Festival diplomatic envoys from 12 countries, and overseas guests from 22 countries, as well as foreign specialists and scholars who have given lectures and exchanged views.

A Hopeful Industry

Each part of the bamboo plant may be used. Spring bamboo shoots are edible and can be processed into various foods. After few months' growth, it can be cut and made into floorboards, plywood and compound engineering material - all used widely in construction and building material industries. Bamboo can also be used to make paper, for arts and crafts, or daily-use articles.

The Yibin Paper Group is the birthplace of China's first machine-made newsprint. In the plant area, this reporter saw rails stretching far into the distance. Trains loaded with bamboo run into the factory, and trains loaded with paper run out. The whole plant area covers 80-odd hectares. Zhao Lin, deputy general manager of the company, told this reporter that in order to protect the Yangtze River resources, the plant has installed world-advanced water treatment equipment. Water that has been used in the papermaking process becomes clear after treatment, and can be re-used.

China imports US $5 billion-worth of wood pulp every year for making paper. If bamboo pulp were to be used instead, production costs would be lower by a significant margin, and a great deal of foreign exchange saved. Bamboo pulp paper making technology has now become mature, and the paper pulp produced by 24 paper-making plants, headed by the Yibin Paper Group, the Changjiang Packaging Paper Company, and the Changning Paper-Making Plant, so far amounts to more than 200,000 tons, over half of which is bamboo pulp.

In recent years, bamboo pulp paper and bamboo charcoal making have both become promising industries. The huge potential market for bamboo products makes the bamboo industry a key factor for various countries, especially the developing countries rich in bamboo resources, in the 21st century.

Twenty years ago, the urban districts of Yibin covered three to four square kilometers, and the city center resembled a country fair. The city has now taken on a new look, and a new 10-square-kilometer urban area has taken shape south of the river.

In the past, transportation to Yibin was not easy. It took seven or eight hours to travel from Yibin to Chengdu or Chongqing. There are now expressways that link the city with Chengdu and Chongqing, and the journey takes only two hours. The grade-two airport operates 15 flights a week. It has a new harbor, and its garbage is 100 percent treated. All this has helped Yibin blend in with the world economy.