Bamboo hullaballoo

The county of Anji in Zhejiang province is a leading Chinese ecotourism county because of its rich cultural and natural landscape. [Photo provided to China Daily]

It's so much like a movie backdrop that it has actually served as several.

A warrior in a fluttering traditional robe smashes swords with a young woman as they literally fly through a bamboo grove's canopy in the international blockbuster Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The iconic fight scene was shot in Zhejiang province's Anji county－for good reason.

Visitors to the filming site in Anji's Dazhuhai, or the Great Bamboo Sea, will discover that the landscape's magic, unlike the movie's martial arts, doesn't require special effects.

They can soar like the Crouching Tiger scene's fencers－even more fantastically, in fact－by zapping along a zip line over Dazhuhai.

Other cinematic hits, including The Banquet and The Matrimony, were filmed there. A small museum dedicated to films set in Anji's bamboo forests is itself set in Anji's bamboo forests.

Wanderers may stumble upon derelict shooting sites of their favorite flicks in these thickets.

Indeed, the plant plays no small role in Anji winning such State-level designations as Leading Chinese Ecotourism County, Beautiful Chinese Countryside (destination) and Most Livable County.

It's important not only to Anji's sustainable development but also to China's－and perhaps the world's.

The county produces roughly a fifth of the country's bamboo goods. The power plant is used by hundreds of local workshops and factories to manufacture thousands of items.

Bamboo's alchemic versatility conjures golden economic opportunities. It can be used to make almost anything－textiles, computer keyboards, sacrificial funerary money, bike frames, luxury-car interiors, speaker diaphragms, smartphone cases, beer and animal feed.