Power plant: bamboo(2)

By the 1950s, the local trees had been logged off, so only bamboo was left.

When people started using concrete to build houses in the 1980s, the government introduced processing plants to make low-end products, such as chopsticks and toothpicks, from bamboo. The industry evolved to include flooring and other higher-end goods and supported 90 percent of local GDP. It's currently about 30 percent, since more locals migrate to other cities.

"The bamboo price is rising, because young people want to work in urban areas rather than cut bamboo," Xuan explains.

"The industry could disappear here."

About 50 species produce more than 3,000 products in Anji. There are more than 3,000 bamboo-processing factories in the county of 250,000 residents.

"Nearly everyone is involved in bamboo," Xuan says.

"But because it requires virtually no care and is harvested every two or six years, the farmers don't have to work hard."

Yuan Guochang works only 10 days annually on his 1.33 hectares of bamboo, which brings in 36,000 yuan every two years.

"I hire other farmers to do the cutting, and the buyers come to me," Yuan says.

"It's easy money. I hope I can get higher yields to earn more money," Yuan says. "Bamboo is the spirit of Anji and of China."