Out of a population of 230,000 in the rural area, 120,000 peasants earn half of their income through bamboo planting.

The 1,800-sq km city covers an area between the Sichuan basin and the Guizhou tableland. The area's subtropical climate and rich rain, together with complex landform and wide-ranging altitudes, make it highly suitable for bamboo growth.

Forests and bamboo cover 62.18 percent of Chishui, according to statistics. The city had over 700,000 mu (46,666 hectares) of bamboo by the end of April this year and the peasants are still enlarging the planting areas.

By 2010, the city projects having one million mu (66,666 hectares) of bamboo with an annual growth of 80,000 mu (5,333 hectares), said Yuan Yiqiao, head of the publicity department of Chishui.

The city produces bamboo in five forms -- construction materials, art crafts, papermaking, household appliances and food manufacturing. Many products sell in countries including Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia.

Local peasants have learned to turn bamboo into artwork to earn more money. Chen Wenlan, a peasant in Datong County, is one of them. By adeptly carving poems of Chairman Mao on bamboo, Chen can turn a cheap product, usually worth three or five yuan apiece, into pieces of art worth 800 yuan (96.39 US dollars).

The city plans to build itself into a large bamboo reserve and manufacturing base, and is also promoting tourism on the themes of bamboo and the Long March, two kinds of culture indigenous to the city.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2002)