1. A General Review of China
Wang Yaping
Ministry of Commerce
The basic national conditions of China are as follows: China is a country
with a vast territory, abundant natural resources but a relatively low per
capita possession of resources. It has a long history and an advanced
culture but with a relatively low level of culture and education among
its citizens. It has an advanced socialist system but with relatively
backward productivity and economic development due to a poor
economic foundation. It has some advanced high technologies up to
the world standard but a relatively weak competitiveness in the world.
It has relatively big overall economic aggregates but a relatively low
level of per capita national income. The economy in the east and
south coastal areas is comparatively developed while that in the
southwest and northwest is less developed. Therefore, China is still at
the primary stage of socialism and remains to be the largest
developing country in the world.
I．GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
1、Geography
China is located in the east of Asia and on the western coast of the
Pacific, covering an area of 9.6 million square kilometers. It is the largest
country in Asia and the third largest in the world, after Russia and
Canada.
China faces sea on its east and south, with over 5,000 islands and islets,
among which the biggest is Taiwan Island and the second one Hainan
Island. China has a 20,000km-long land boundary and the coast line is
about 18,000 km.
It is bordered with over 10 neighboring countries including Russia,
Mongolia, Pakistan, India, Laos, Vietnam, South Korea, etc. and faces
such countries as South Korea, Japan, Philippines, and Malaysia across
the sea.
China has lots of mountains and hills, among which there are seven of
the twelve mountains in the world that are more than 8,000 meters high.
For instance, the Himalayas in Tibet of China is the highest mountain in
the world. Besides, there are many famous mountains of tourist
attraction in China.
China has various topographic features. Three major plains in China
are the Northeast China plain, the North China plain and the plain of
the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. And there are four
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2. major plateaus in China, which are the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, the
Inner Mongolian tableland, the loess plateau and the Yunnan-Guizhou
plateau. Besides, it has four major basins, namely the Tarim Basin,
Junggar Basin, Qaidam Basin and Sichuan Basin.
China has many rivers distributed in many parts of its territory. The
Yangtze River, with a total length of 6,300 kilometers, is the longest river
in China and the third longest in the world. The Yellow River, which is
the second longest in China, is 5, 464 kilometers long. The third longest
river in China is the Heilongjiang River, with a total length of 4,370
kilometers. The Yarlung Zangbo Canyon is the largest canyon in the
world.
China has many long rivers covering a large area of drainage basin. It
is abundant in hydropower resources but also vulnerable to floods and
other natural disasters. However, generally speaking, China lacks in
water resource, especially the northwest part of China which always
suffers from drought. The per capita possession of water resource is
2,048 m3, only one fourth of the world‘s average.
Due to the imbalanced distribution of water, power and gas resources,
the country has launched some big projects including channeling the
water from the south to the north, transmitting the gas from the west to
the east and transmitting the power from the west to the east. The
4,000km-long pipe for gas transmitting has been completed and put
into us. The effort of transmitting power from the west to the east is
furthered, and up to now it has been able to provide over 30 million
kilowatts power. As to the project of channeling water from the south
to the north, the three lines including the east line, middle line and west
line are all processing smoothly. The Three Gorges dam, which attracts
the world‘s attention, was completed on May 20, 2006. The dam is
2,309m long and 185m high, and the quality of the project is of top
standard in the world. Now it‘s playing a comprehensive role against
flooding, in generating power and in facilitating navigation.
China has a large number of lakes. There are 13 lakes of which the
area is more than 1,000 square kilometers, and 130 lakes covering an
area over 100 square km, and more than 2,800 lakes‘ area are over 1
square km. Qinghai Lake in western part is the largest salt lake in China
with an area of 4,583 square kilometers. Poyang Lake in Jiangxi
province is the largest freshwater lake covering an area of 3,583 square
kilometers.
At the end of 2008, China has only 121.7 million hectares of arable land
and 128.63 million hectares of forest; though the figures seem to be big,
the per capita possession is far below the world‘s average level.
2、Climate
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3. The Chinese territory runs through 50 latitude zones from the south to
the north, spanning five temperature zones. The Tropic of Cancer runs
through the southern part of the country, making 90% of its territory be
in a temperate zone with distinct climatic differences of four seasons. In
2008, the average temperature in China is 9.6 degrees centigrade. In
south china the highest temperature can reach 40 degrees while the
lowest in the north can reach minus 50.
II 、 POPULATION, ETHNIC GROUPS, RELIGION AND DEVELOPMENT
HISTORY
1、Population
According to the census in 2000, China had a population of 1.295
billion, ranking the first in the world. By the end of 2008, the population
of mainland China had reached 1.32802 billion; plus the population of
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, the total population of China was
over 1.35 billion. In 2008, in mainland China, there were 16.08 million
newborns and 9.35 million death toll, which means a net increase of
6.73 million in population. In mainland China, 45.7% of the people live in
urban area, while the other 54.3% in rural area. In terms of the gender
composition, male accounts for 51.5%, while female takes up 48.5%.
Due to the huge population, China faces great pressure in
employment. We have about 800 million work force, whereas the work
force in all the developed countries in Europe and United States only
amounts to 430 million. By the end of 2008, there had been 774.8 million
work force, including 302.1 million in urban area. Only in 2008, China
had a net increase of over 20 million work force, among which over 5.4
million are undergraduates or postgraduates. The registered urban
unemployment rate was 4.2%. Besides, there is more than 100 million
surplus labor in rural area; most of them are migrant workers in the cities
now.
Confronted with such a huge population, in order to bring about a
coordinated development between population and our economy,
society, resources and environment, the country launched a law of
family control to promote family happiness, national prosperity and
social progress. The government encourages late marriage, late
childbearing and one family, one child. However, in some special
cases regulated by laws and regulations, a couple can give birth to a
second child. In fact, at present, 30%-40% of Chinese have two or more
kids. Therefore, in China, people have their rights to have or not to
have children. Through years of education and encouragement, ―one
family, one child‖ has become a voluntary act of Chinese citizens.
Without the family control policy, China would have 400 million more
people over the past 30 years; therefore, we have made great
achievement in controlling the population. According to the forecast,
China‘s population will rise to 1.36 billion by 2010, and 1.45 billion by
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4. 2020; the peak time will come around 2033 when the population will be
1.5 billion. After that, the population will be kept stable. However,
concerning the population, there are two problems, namely, aging
and imbalance of gender. According to the common practice of
international community, if people above 65 years old account for
more than 7% of the total population, that society is called aging
society. By the end of last year, elder people above 65 years old
accounted for 8.3% of the total population, and this figure might rise to
11.8% by 2020 and 25% by 2050. In recent years, the ratio of new-born
girls to new-born boys is becoming higher and higher; for example, the
ratio in 1981 was 108.47, but in 2008 the ratio became 120.56. That is to
say, when 100 girls are born, there are over 120 boys born at the same
time, which is far beyond the normal range from 103 to 107. By the year
2020, there will be 30 million more males than females between 20 to 45
years‘ old.
2、Ethnic Groups
China is a unified multi-ethnic country with 56 ethnic groups, of which
the Han nationality accounts for 91.59% of the total population in the
mainland. Relatively populous minority groups are Zhuang, Islamic,
Uigur, Yi, Miao, Manchu, Tibetan and Mongolian. Among the 56
nationalities, 53 have their own spoken languages, and the ethnic
groups of Han, Islamic and Manchu use Chinese language, and 23
ethnic groups have their own written languages. Chinese is the
common language in China and one of the languages used by the
international community.
China‘s policies toward ethnic minorities are: adhering to the equality
and unity among all ethnic groups; helping each other and pursuing
common prosperity; implementing self-government in autonomous
regions of ethnic minority groups; training leaders of minority groups;
helping them develop their economy and culture; attaching
importance to the use and development of their spoken and written
languages; respecting their customs and way of living; respecting their
religious beliefs; and adopting a preferential population policy toward
minority groups.
3、Religion
China is a country with many religions. On almost two-thirds of the
territory, there are religious believers with the number of about 100
million. Major religions are Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and
Christianity.
China's policies toward religions are: People have freedom in their
religious belief. They‘re free to believe or not believe in any religion and
to change their religious belief. The nature of the policy is to make the
issue of religion an entirely private affair of the citizen. China pursues an
independent policy of religion, under which religious groups conduct
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5. self-government of their affairs, support themselves on their own and
practice religion independently.
4、Development History
China is one of the countries in the world with an ancient civilization
and has a recorded history for more than 4,000 years.
China is one of the countries with the oldest economy and culture in
the world. China is well-known for its four major inventions -- paper
making technology, type printing, powder and compass. There are
also numerous ancient historical and cultural relics.
Two thousand years ago, China‘s annual GDP occupied one fourth of
the world‘s total. In 1400, China‘s GDP was nearly the same as that of
the whole Europe, and in 1820 China‘s annual GDP constituted one
third of the world‘s total.
However, after the Opium War in 1840, many western countries came
to China, turning it into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, and its
economy suffered a great recession. After longtime arduous and
courageous struggles, Chinese people of all ethnic groups, under the
leadership of the Communist Party of China, ultimately overthrew the
rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, and founded
the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. The People's
Republic of China is a socialist country with people's democratic
dictatorship held by the working class and based on the alliance of
workers and peasants. Since the foundation, the country has carried
out the socialist reform, achieved the transition from neo-democracy
to socialism, established the basic system of socialism and developed
constantly the modern socialist economy, politics and culture.
III、POLITICAL SYSTEM AND ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION
1、Political System
China is a democratic and law-ruling country. The Constitution protects
the fundamental rights of every citizen. The system of the People's
Congress is the fundamental political system of China, and the system
of multi-party cooperation and political consultation is the basic system
of China.
The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest body of state
power and also the highest body of legislative power. The National
People's Congress is composed of deputies elected from the provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central
Government and of deputies elected from the armed forces on the
basis of general elections among the people of the whole country. The
functions and responsibilities of the National People's Congress: 1. To
exercise the legislative power, to enact and amend the Constitution,
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6. and to enact laws. 2. To exercise the power of appointing and
removing from office state leaders and of electing its Standing
Committee; to elect the President and Vice President of the state; to
decide on the choice of the Premier, Vice Premiers and other members
of the State Council; to elect the Chairman of the Central Military
Commission and other commission members; to elect the President of
the Supreme People's Court and the Procurator General of the
Supreme People's Procuratorate. The above members are responsible
to the National People's Congress and report on their work to the
Congress and accept its supervision. The National People's Congress is
empowered to remove the above members from office. 3.To exercise
the power of deciding on major state affairs of the country, including
the powers of: the supervision of the enforcement of the Constitution;
examination and approval of the plan for national economic and
social development and the report on its implementation; examination
and approval of the state budget and the report on its implementation;
alter or annul inappropriate decisions of the Standing Committee of
the National People's Congress; approving the establishment of
provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the
Central Government, approving the establishment of special
administrative regions and making decisions on issues of war and
peace.
The State Council: It is the executive organ of the National People‘s
Congress and the highest organ of state administration. It is responsible
for the enforcement of the laws, regulations, decisions, plans, budgets
and other resolutions enacted and endorsed by the National People‘s
Congress and its Standing Committee. The State Council consists of 29
ministries and commissions. It is also the Central People‘s Government,
which exercises leadership over local people‘s governments at various
levels.
The Supreme People’s Court is the highest judicial organ of the state. It
exercises judicial power independently. The Supreme People's
Procuratorate is the highest state procuratorial organ and the state
organ for legal supervision. Both of them are responsible to the
National People‘s Congress and its Standing Committee.
The Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)
conducts political consultations over major policies of the state and
other issues concerning the life of the people, and plays the role of
democratic supervision through suggestions and criticisms. The CPPCC
consists of representatives of the Communist Party of China, all
democratic parties, patriotic persons without party affiliation, people‘s
organizations, all ethnic minority groups, compatriots of Hong Kong,
Macao and Taiwan, overseas Chinese and people from all walks of life.
It is the patriotic united front of the Chinese people and an important
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7. form of organization of multi-party cooperation and political
consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
2、Political Parties
The Communist Party of China is the organization of the vanguard of
not only the working class but also Chinese people and Chinese nation.
It is the core leader of the socialism with Chinese characteristics,
representing the requirement of the development trend of China‘s
advanced productive forces, representing the orientation of China‘s
advanced culture and representing the fundamental interests of the
overwhelming majority of the Chinese people. Founded on July 1, 1921,
the Communist Party has over 70.8 million members. It is the ruling party
of China.
There are eight democratic parties, which are participating in political
and government affairs in cooperation with the Communist Party of
China.
(1) The Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang
consists of the democratic forces within Kuomintang and other
patriotic democratic personages.
(2) China Democratic League: consists of middle and upper-class
intellectuals who work for the socialist cause.
(3) China Democratic National Construction Association: consists
mainly of people from the economic circle as well as experts and
scholars, which has the nature of a political league and serves
socialism.
(4) China Association for Promoting Democracy: consists of
intellectuals in the fields of education, culture, science and other areas,
working for the socialist construction.
(5) China Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party: consists of
intermediate and senior intellectuals from the medical circle and the
communities of science and technology, culture and education,
working for the socialist construction.
(6) China Zhi Gong Dang: consists of returned overseas Chinese,
the family members of overseas Chinese, prominent figures with
overseas connections, experts and scholars working for the socialist
construction.
(7) Jiu San Society: consists of intermediate and senior intellectuals
from the communities of science and technology, culture, education,
and the medical circle, serving socialism.
(8) Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League: consists of
personages from Taiwan province who are socialist laborers and
patriots upholding socialism.
The above-mentioned democratic parties participate in and discuss
political and government affairs mainly by political consultation and other
forms.
3、Administrative Division
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8. The country is divided into 23 provinces, 5 autonomous regions and 4
municipalities directly under the Central Government and 2 special
administrative regions.
Four municipalities directly under the Central Government are Beijing,
Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing. Beijing, capital of the people‘s republic
of China, is the national center of politics and culture with an area of
16,800 square kilometers, and a population of over 13 million. Shanghai,
with a population of more than 17 million, is the largest industrial and
commercial city in China, is an international metropolis full of potential of
development.
Two special administrative regions are Hong Kong and Macao, which the
Chinese government resumed the exercise of sovereignty on July 1, 1997
and Dec. 20, 1999 respectively.
Taiwan is a province of China and an inalienable part of the Chinese
territory. The Chinese government will endeavor to resolve the Taiwan
issue in accordance with the policy of "peaceful reunification, one
country, two systems." However, if the Taiwan authorities claim its
independence, or foreign forces invade Taiwan, we‘ll have to resort to
military forces to solve this issue.
China‘s local governments are divided into four levels: provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central
Government; cities, regions and autonomous prefectures; counties,
autonomous counties and cities at county level; townships, nationality
townships, and towns. There are 2,135 units at county level. A small
county has a population of tens of thousands while a large county,
near a million.
4、Diplomatic Policies
China pursues an independent foreign policy and adheres to the Five
Principles of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity,
mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs,
equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. China is ready
to develop diplomatic relations and economic and cultural exchanges
with other countries on the basis of the Five Principles. It firmly opposes
hegemony, power politics and terrorism, safeguards world peace and
promotes human progress. China has established diplomatic relations
with more than 160 countries and maintained trade ties and friendship
with more than 200 countries and regions. China will unswervingly
pursue its peaceful development and go on carrying out its opening-
up strategy based on mutual benefit and striving for all-win results.
IV、ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
1、Overall Situation
After the People‘s Republic of China was founded in 1949, particularly
since 1978 when China carried out the policy of reform and opening-
up, China has scored remarkable economic achievement. Over the
past 30 years, China has been taking a firm step in promoting its reform
and opening-up. The socialist market economy has been generally
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9. established, and an open economy has taken shape. The social
productivity and comprehensive national strength are constantly
enhanced, public services have been developed all-roundly, and
people‘s living standards have been improved greatly from having
enough food and clothing to being well-off. From 1978 to 2007, the
annual economic growth rate is 9.8% on average, which is far higher
compared to the 3.3% average growth rate of the world‘s economy.
In 2008, though challenged by the devastating natural disasters and
severe international financial crisis, the national economy still achieved
rather fast development: the GDP reached 30.067 trillion RMB Yuan,
increased by 9% compared to that in 2007. Based on rough estimation,
China‘s economy contributed over 20% to the world‘s overall
economic growth. Currently, China‘s aggregate economic volume
ranks the fourth in the world, following the US, Japan and Germany. In
2008, we had tax revenue of 5421.962 billion Yuan and foreign reserves
over 1.946 trillion USD. The proportion of the three industries in 2008
respectively was: primary industry 11.3%, secondary industry 48.6%, and
the tertiary industry 40.1%. The disposable income of urban citizens was
15,781 Yuan, and the net income of rural residents was 4,761 Yuan;
after adjusting for inflation, the real growth rate was 8.4% and 8%
respectively. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 5.9%. The
consumption structure is updated very quickly, and now housing,
automobile, telecommunication, traveling and education have
become the five new hot spots in consumption. For example, by the
end of last year, the total number of private cars in China reached
19.47 million, up 28% compared to the previous year.
2、Agriculture
China remains to be an agricultural country. China ranks the first three
places in the world in terms of the output volumes of such products as
corn, cotton, meat, peanut, rapeseed, fruit, tea and sugarcane. The
grain output of 2008 totaled 528.5 million tons, increased by 5.4%
compared to that in 2007; besides, the output volume of cotton
amounted to 7.5 million tons, oil–bearing crops 29.5 million tons, sugar
crops 130 million tons, tea 1.24 million tons, and meat 72.69 million tons.
3、Industry
China is also a big industrial country. The output volume of some
industrial products such as steel, coal, cement, chemical fertilizer, TV
set, electricity, cotton cloth and chemical fiber takes the lead in the
world. Now China is the second largest energy producer as well as
consumer in the world. In the year of 2008, the output of coal was 2.793
billion tons, ranking the first in the world and constituting more than one
third of the world‘s total output; electricity generated amounted to
3.4668 trillion kilowatt hours, taking the second place in the world;
crude oil took the fifth place with the output volume of 190 million tons;
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10. natural gas took the 15th place in the world with the output volume of
76.08 billion m3. Besides, China is the largest steel and iron producer
and consumer for 13 years running. In last year, the output volume of
crude steel was 500.915 million tons, rolled steel 584.881 million tons,
cement 1.4 billion tons, 9.3455 million automobiles, 90.33 million color TV
sets, 559.64 million mobile phones, and 136.666 million microcomputers.
4、Foreign Trade and Domestic Market
In 2008, the foreign trade volume amounted to 2.5616 trillion USD,
increased by 17.8% than that in 2007. Among that, export volume was
1.4285 trillion USD, up by 17.2%, and import volume was 1.1331 trillion,
up by 18.5%. Besides, China leads the world in terms of the export
volume of over 700 commodities such as textiles, clothing, shoes, color
TV, motorcycles, air-conditioning, DVD and containers. China is the
third largest exporter and importer in the world, making over 12%
contribution to world‘s trade growth. Since China‘s entry into WTO in
2001, its import volume is over 630 billion USD annually, having created
more than 10 million job opportunities for relevant countries and
regions. Currently, China is the third largest importer for the most
underdeveloped countries, after the EU and US; and it‘s the largest
importer of copper and rolled steel as well as one of the most
important importers of other primary products.
China has been taking the first place in attracting foreign investment
among all developing countries for 16 consecutive years. Last year, the
actual utilized FDI was 92.4 billion USD, up by 23.6%. 27,514 foreign
enterprises were approved to get registered last year. At present, the
actual utilized FDI totals 859.1 billion USD, and there are altogether
660,000 foreign enterprises registered in China. Besides, China has over
700 foreign-funded R & D centers and more than 30 headquarters of
transnational companies; among the Fortune 500, over 480 have had
investment in China.
Last year, China‘s direct investment in other countries was 40.7 billion
USD, and the total aggregate of China‘s investment in other countries
amounted to 134 billion USD. The turnover of foreign projects
contracting in 2008 reached 56.6 billion USD, up 39.4%; labor
cooperation with other countries realized a turnover of 8.1 billion USD
with an increase of 19.1%; and the total number of labor force working
in other countries was about 600,000.
Besides, China has a huge domestic market. Taking the year 2003 for
example, China consumed 260 million tons steel, exceeding the total
output of US and Japan in that year and making China the biggest
steel consumer in the world. In addition, in that year, China used 820
million tons cement which accounted for 45% of the world‘s total
output; 30% of the world‘s glass was used by China; and it had a
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11. consumption of 250 million tons of oil, occupying 7% of the world‘s
annual output, taking the second place in terms of oil consumption
after the US. Besides, China consumes one third of coal and 30% of iron
and aluminum of the world‘s total output every year.
With the constant increase of people‘s demand and updating of
consumption structure, China is beginning to lead the world in the
consumption of some traditional electric home appliances such as
color TV, IT products such as mobiles, new service products such as
wideband Internet and means of production such as iron and steel. In
2008, the gross retail sales of consumables reached 10.8488 trillion Yuan,
up by 21.6% compared to that in 2007. Fixed asset investment in 2008
amounted to 17.2291 trillion Yuan, increased by 25.5%. In the
circumstances of the global economic recession and challenged by
the slowdown of foreign trade growth, giving an impetus to the
domestic demand, stimulating the consumption and increasing
investment are the fundamental measures that China takes to deal
with problems caused by the global financial crisis and keep its stable
and rapid economic development.
5、Transportation, telecommunications & tourism
The transportation, telecommunications and tourism are developing
steadily. A three-dimensional transportation network has been formed,
integrating railway transportation, road transportation, inland water
navigation, maritime and air transportation with road and railway
transportation as the backbone. At present, 54,000 km-long expressway
and 78,000 km-long railway have been put into use, and there have
been 148 airports in use. The cargo throughput of ports reached 5.87
billion tons last year, up by 11.5%, and the container throughput
amounted to 128.35 million TEU, up by 12.2%. Shanghai Port, which is
the biggest port in China, has exceeded Rotterdam Port in the
Netherlands in terms of the handling capacity of cargo and now ranks
the first in the world. Its handling capacity of containers is also similar to
Singapore and Hong Kong, which take the first and second place
respectively in the world. Therefore, Shanghai Port has become the
largest port in the world.
By the end of last year, we had 64.67 million private owned
automobiles, 982.04 million phone users including 641.23 million mobile
phone subscribers and 340.81 million fixed-phone users, and 300 million
people using Internet including 270 million using wideband Internet.
Last year, 45.84 million person-times went abroad, and 130.03 million
person-times came to China for travel, bringing 40.8 billion USD foreign
revenues. In terms of domestic travel, 1.71 billion person-times went
traveling with total revenue of 874.9 billion Yuan.
V. EDUCATION & SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
1. Culture, health care and physical education
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12. China has a rich cultural heritage with far-reaching influence of Confucianism. It boasts many world
famous historical relics, among which the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors are listed as two of
the eight wonders in the world. Representative literary forms include prose of Han Dynasty, poem of
Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, verse of Yuan Dynasty, and novels of Ming and Qing Dynasties. The
modern and contemporary literatures enjoy a brisk and prosperous situation of "letting a hundred
flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend". Painting, calligraphy and dramas also
have their unique characteristics.
Now, there are 2,575 art-performing groups, 3,171 cultural centers,
2,825 public libraries, 1,798 museums, 257 radio broadcasting stations
and 277 TV stations with 45 educational TV stations. In addition, there
are 163.42 million cable TV users and 45.03 million digital TV users. By the
end of last year, the broadcasting coverage was 96%, and TV
coverage reached 97%. Besides, China publishes 44.5 billion pieces of
newspapers, 3 billion copies of magazines and 6.9 billion copies of
books. There are 3,987 archives where 72.67 million documents are
open to the public.
Progress is also made in medical care service. Up to now there are
about 300,000 health care institutions, including 60,000 hospitals and
clinics with 3.69 million sickbeds and 4.92 million health workers of which
2.05 million are practicing and assistant doctors and 1.62 million
registered nurses.
Remarkable achievements have been scored in sports. In 2008,
Chinese athletes won 120 world champions in 24 contests, and broke
16 world records. China‘s basketball and volleyball teams are rather
strong in Asia, and women‘s volleyball and women‘s football teams are
among the best teams in the world. Besides, China is undoubtedly
strong in table tennis, badminton, weightlifting, shooting, gymnastics
and diving. In the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Chinese athletes won
51 gold medals, 21 silver medals and 28 bronze medals, ranking the first
in terms of the number of gold medals and the second in terms of the
total number of medals. In the Beijing Paralympic Games, our athletes
won 89 gold medals, 70 silver medals and 52 bronze medals, taking the
first place in terms of both the number of gold medals and total
number of medals as we did in 2004 Athens Paralympic Games.
2、Education
Chinese government and people have always been attaching great
importance to education and adopting the strategy of rejuvenating
the nation through science and education. There are over 700,000
schools of various kinds in China. The 9-year compulsory education
covers over 95% of the population. The enrollment rate for children is
99.27 %. Young illiterate rate has been reduced to as low as below 5%.
Enrollment rate for high school has reached 60%, and higher education
has been popularized with an enrollment rate of 23%. Education in
China involves a huge number of students; if all the classes start at the
same time, there will be 250 million students in the classroom. (Including
1.283 million postgraduates, 20.21 million university students, 20.563
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13. million in secondary vocational or technical schools, 24.763 million in
senior high schools, 55.742 million in junior high schools, 103.315 million in
primary schools, 417,000 in special education schools and 24.75 million
in kindergarten).
3. Science and technology
At present, China has over 30 million professional technicians of various
fields. In 2008, the R & D expenditure was 457 billion Yuan, up by 23.2%
compared to that in 2007, accounting for 1.52% of China‘s GDP. We
have our own atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs used for self-
defense and man-made satellites. In addition, more than 10% of the
scientific technology is of world-leading level.
All in all, China has made remarkable achievements in economy,
scientific technology and culture and education. But owing to the
huge population and poor foundation, China is still backward in many
aspects. Though China‘s total economic volume ranks the fourth in the
world, the per capita GDP is only around 2600 US dollars.
The rapid growing economy of China has created a lot of employment
opportunities; however, the registered unemployment rate in urban
area at the end of 2008 reached 4.2% with over 100 million surplus labor
forces in the rural area. Particularly, in the middle and western area,
there are still 40.07 million poor people whose average per capita
annual income is less than 1,196 Yuan. In addition, China‘s economy is
developing fast while it is confronted with the arduous task of resource
and environment protection. Therefore, all in all, China is still a
developing country and remains to be the largest developing country
in the world.
13

14. The Bamboo Sector as an Effective Stakeholder Network and
the Role of INBAR
J. Coosje Hoogendoorn1 and A. Benton2
1. Director General, INBAR, P.O.Box 100102-86, Beijing, China
(choogendoorn@inbar.int)
2. Manager, Networking and Partnerships Unit, INBAR, P.O.Box 100102-
86, Beijing, China (andrew@inbar.int)
INTRODUCTION
Bamboos grow naturally in almost all tropical and sub-tropical countries,
except those in the Persian Gulf, North Africa and the Sahel, and
extend well into the temperate zones of each hemisphere. Many
societies have developed integrally with bamboo, and the ubiquity
and utility with which bamboo is relied upon by people in over half the
nations of the world for varied aspects of their lives is well documented.
Cultures have evolved with bamboo, and it has been a significant
contributor to the development of civilization.
With perhaps a billion of the world‘s population relying on bamboo in
some way or another for some aspect of their lives or livelihoods, the
vast majority of those poor and in developing countries, the
opportunity that bamboo offers to improve their situations by building
on inherent bamboo skills and knowledge is huge. Already, innovation
of products, policies and support structures have led some countries,
particularly China, and to a lesser extent India, Colombia and the
Philippines amongst others, to develop thriving commercial bamboo
sectors that employ millions of people.
Because of the versatility of uses of bamboo wood, the production
chains of bamboo for different products often involve a range of
people at different stages, each stage a different processing step, and
each step involving value addition by the producers, and hence
income generation. As a result the value chain of bamboo products is
very pro-poor. Even with products that are finished in large factories,
much primary processing is required and is usually done by the farmers
that grow and harvest them or in their communities, which not only
benefits the processors, but is usually cheaper for the factory owner as
they can work with semi-processed materials. A production chain can
thus involve many stakeholders, from individual farmers to NGOs
supporting their work, funding agencies such as banks, commercial
companies, government agencies from forestry departments to
14

15. ministries of commerce, chambers of commerce, fair trade groups, all
of which have varying roles within it.
The environmental benefits of bamboo in relation to coping with
climate change are presently very topical - annual non-destructive
harvesting of bamboo means that the canopy is retained over the soil
and permanently and significantly reduces soil erosion, whilst providing
a predictable supply of wood for income generating activities.
Bamboo‘s very rapid growth rate means it sequesters carbon rapidly,
though the extent to which this happens needs further research (Liese,
in press). Most high-value bamboo products have a long life, and the
carbon can be captured and held for many decades. As an
alternative to timber wood, using bamboo would help reduce the
destruction of forests, particularly tropical forests - activities which in
themselves release large amounts of carbon.
At the Conference on ―Climate Change, Global Risks, Challenges and
Decisions‖ in Copenhagen in March 2009, noted Climate Change
specialist Prof. John Schellnhuber said: ―We are facing the MAD
challenge: Mitigation, Adaptation and Development‖ (see
http://climatecongress.ku.dk/). He argued for holistic approaches, not
marginal changes, that actively involve developing countries – and the
vast majority of these already have bamboo. The inherent ability of
bamboo to combine protection of the environment with income
generation ensures it is a strong candidate for contributing to these
holistic integrated development systems that will be necessary for
dealing with the MAD challenge. At the same time, researching and
implementing holistic development systems can only be successful
through a partnership approach.
INBAR AS A NETWORKING AGENCY
A good partnership brings together organizations and individuals with
similar goals but different and complementary skills, which ensures
more effective and efficient progress towards their common aims, and
enables them to learn together, and from each other. Partnerships are
often formalized by an MoU indicating a general agreement to work
together, or by a contract in order to implement a project or other
activity. In the latter case, careful inclusion of appropriate technical,
national/local support, field implementation, innovation, marketing,
training organizations (amongst others) at appropriate levels –
international, national, local or community – can build strong links that
increase local and national capacities to implement the project, to
continue its development or adapt it for broader uptake after the
project has finished.
15

16. The different levels of knowledge and awareness of what bamboo can
do across the world is vast. INBAR often finds that when we bring
people from countries with untapped bamboo-based development
potential to China to see the bamboo value chain, or to our Action
Research Sites in Asia, Africa or Latin America, they are amazed at the
possibilities bamboo has to offer. Unless specific action is undertaken,
ideas and innovations tend to remain where they originate and with
the people who originated them. This is to be expected particularly in
the case of new products where many have a financial value. Clearly
sharing of information across boundaries, be they national, cultural,
economic or social, is an essential first step to enabling decision makers
to decide whether and which bamboo-based solutions to trial in their
own regions. Linking appropriate partners to the decision makers and
the implementers to help them achieve their bamboo-based aims is
the second step, and providing guidance and assistance to enable
them to achieve these aims is the third.
Recognizing the essential need for sharing and enhancing existing skills
and experiences from the very diverse backgrounds from which they
come in order to grow the world‘s bamboo sector, INBAR was
established to act as the hub of a network of bamboo expertise,
implementation, adaptation and adoption organizations and
individuals. This confers certain advantages, responsibilities and ways of
working on INBAR. Firstly, networks, and the partnerships that develop
from them, enable learning and innovation amongst their members –
sharing of information and skills increases the abilities of members, and
builds stronger partnerships between them. This leads to increased
mutual trust and support that strengthens the network, including
sharing information that would not otherwise be shared. Finally,
networks and partnerships lead to an increased capacity to manage
change by the members and empower them to deal with the broader,
more complex issues that affect their common interests (Svendsen and
Laberge, 2007).
Over the years INBAR has formally partnered (ie by MoU, contract or
similar agreement) well over 200 organizations, companies and
individuals for its work, and worked informally with many more. Our
mailing list includes over 5500 institutions and individuals throughout the
world. As a hub, INBAR aims to collate and provide up-to-date
information on all aspects of bamboo-based development to the
world community, and we are continually working to improve our
information services. INBAR coordinates a range of training and
awareness- raising activities, focusing on its abilities as a global
networking organization to share skills across national and continental
boundaries. INBAR also needs to lead the development of innovative
bamboo-based solutions to poverty and environmental amelioration,
and runs Action Research Projects to do this. Not only do they trial the
16

17. production of bamboo products in different locations, with different
bamboo species, under different environmental, social and market
conditions and different levels of policy support and investment, but
they also trial different partnerships and show how they can work for
sustainable development. INBAR shares the experience gained to
guide and help other members of the network achieve similar success.
INBAR’S PARTNERS
The world‘s bamboo sector is very diverse. Within the sector, different
sets of stakeholders have different demands, and so INBAR works to
develop sub-networks where appropriate, sometimes thematic,
sometimes geographical, that bring like-minded stakeholders together.
In general our main groups of stakeholders can be categorized as:
 The approximately one billion rural poor people who depend in
some way or another on bamboo for some or all of their lives and
livelihoods
 The governments of INBAR‘s member countries and, by default, all
their citizens (ie. over 3 billion people)
 The consumers of bamboo products throughout the world
 Actual or potential investors in the bamboo sector
 Bamboo innovators and implementers
 The world‘s development community
INBAR has developed formal structures for some of its partnerships:
MEMBERSHIP
Membership of INBAR is open only to sovereign states registered with
the United Nations. Nine states signed INBAR‘s establishment treaty in
1997, and presently 34 states have acceded – 10 in Asia, 13 in Africa, 9
in Latin America, one in North America and one in Oceania.
Membership of INBAR confers certain advantages on these states, but
also requires their commitment to helping INBAR develop for the good
of their own citizens. Representatives of the Member Countries meet
once every two years as the INBAR Council to review INBAR‘s progress
and take decisions about its future.
AFFILIATES
INBAR‘s affiliates scheme, with about 170 members, is regarded as a
second tier of membership, and is open to individuals and
organizations alike for a small fee. It offers a range of benefits to
members. The scheme in Latin America is particularly successful, and
acts as a network of geographically and culturally-similar partners,
sharing a common language.
PARTNERSHIP PROGRAMMES
17

18. INBAR runs three thematic programmes and also three special
partnership programmes – the NTFP Global Partnership Programme
(NTFP-GPP), the Global Bamboo Housing Programme (GBHP) and the
Global Rattan Programme (GRP). These are multi-level partnerships
that work with stakeholders ranging from governments (eg. for policy,
investment) to NGOs (eg. for community training or access to
common-use processing facilities). They work by either encouraging
formal membership of organizations in the partnership, and/or by being
open to individuals and institutions via memberships of online discussion
groups.
The NTFP-GPP was established under the aegis of the Global Forum on
Agricultural Research in 2005 and currently has 22 members, including
the governments of India, Mozambique and Ecuador, SNV - the
Netherlands Development Organization, the Asian and Arab Networks
for Sustainable Agricultural Development, and a range of NGOs and
companies. Its goals are ensconsed in the Marrakech Declaration, and
it aims to promote collaborative efforts, synergies and economies of
scale to address strategic NTFP research and development issues of
global relevance in order to contribute to achieving the Millennium
Development Goals. Projects to date have included evaluations of
NTFP potential in Mozambique and reviews and policy work of
charcoal production and use in Africa. The NTFP-GPP helps the INBAR
network to learn from other NTFPs, and the NTFPs represented by the
GPP members learn from INBAR‘s network to improve their
effectiveness.
The Global Bamboo Housing Programme aims to promote and
develop appropriate sustainable housing solutions using bamboo. With
a global need for 4000 new houses every day, pressure on timber and
the rising costs of mineral-based raw materials, the programme and its
partners have demonstrated bamboo as an effective alternative
resource for construction in a number of countries in Asia, Africa and
Latin America. The programme has trained hundreds of house
constructors, fostered innovation of new housing construction systems
using engineered bamboo, and developed support systems such as
standards for building with round-pole bamboo that can be used to
develop national legislation that provides a legal framework for
builders of bamboo houses. With its partners it has innovated a
prototype refugee shelter from bamboo in Ghana, and built
emergency shelters in Sichuan after the earthquake in 2008. The
programme has organized two international workshops on housing and
has organized a highly acclaimed design competition (see Xiao et al.
2008; Paudel et al. 2008). The programme presently supports projects to
develop modular bamboo housing production facilities in Nepal and
Ethiopia, to develop pre-formed bamboo components and relevant
policy supports in India, and has started working on bamboo housing
18

19. more widely in East Africa. Its thriving Google group is a forum for
discussion and exchange amongst individuals and institutions, with well
over 150 members.
The Global Rattan Programme commenced in 2008, and has a specific
aim to foster links between Asia, Africa and Latin America. Currently it
runs its first project in Ghana. It is presently an informal network, and not
directly relevant to bamboo, expect for the fact that in a significant
number of countries the bamboo and rattan sectors are very much
intertwined.
As part of its core activities, INBAR runs to develop innovative and
sustainable solutions to environmental degradation, poverty and fairer
trade with bamboo, in partnership with a wide range of expert
organizations and individuals. Project partners are a.o. multilateral
agencies, funding agencies, government departments, NGOs,
research and development agencies, community-based organizations,
and marketing organizations.
IMPACT OF INBAR’S WORK
INBAR‘s work aims to contribute to the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals, particularly MDG 1 (eradicate extreme poverty
and hunger), MDG 7 (ensure environmental sustainability) and MDG 8
(develop a global partnership for development). To ensure that INBAR
works effectively, INBAR developed four strategic goals in 2006 that it
aims to achieve over the following decade (INBAR, 2006):
1. An expanded, highly effective network of committed stakeholders
(MDG 8)
2. Better ways and means of livelihood development, particularly in
rural areas (MDG 1)
3. Increased and more effective conservation of the environment
and of biodiversity (MDG 7)
4. A better and more innovative market environment, providing fair
global-to-local and local-to-global trading systems for income
generation (MDG 8)
INBAR with its partners is making good progress towards realizing its
goals.
MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
19

20. Directly improving the lives of thousands of people in Asia, Africa and
Latin America in development projects
INBAR and its partners work with a small but representative sample of
the rural poor in our field projects to develop replicable and
adaptable development models with bamboo and rattan that can
be scaled up and applied more widely. We have helped thousands
of men and women in the Action Research Sites earn incomes from
bamboo, and have developed a Global Marketing Initiative to
promote better products that meet international market demand, to
help increase the benefits they accrue from their work (eg. see
Ramanuja Rao et al, in press)..
Helping innovate bamboo technologies and products with market
potential
INBAR and partners have fostered the development of a wide range
of new products, and the systems used to produce them, including
flat-pack bamboo furniture, bamboo crisps, stylish round-pole
furniture, mass produced incense sticks and commoditized bamboo
laths and slats, all of which meet market demand, or open up new
trading avenues.
Training over 6000 people in bamboo production and processing
INBAR run training courses with partners in all developing continents.
Many trainees use their new skills to establish businesses or take jobs in
the sector. Courses targeted towards government decision-makers
have encouraged some of them to develop national bamboo-based
development programmes and projects in their own countries.
MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Demonstrating bamboo for rehabilitating degraded lands and
preventing soil erosion
The bamboos that INBAR supported the NGO ―UTTHAN‖ to plant on
land severely degraded by mining for brick making in Allahabad,
India raised the water table by 7m in five years. In only two years
bamboo plantations in China reduced soil erosion by 75% whilst
providing incomes to local people who processed them for sale (see
Kutty and Narayanan, 2003).
Evaluating the state of the World‘s bamboo resources
INBAR and FAO have agreed to include bamboo in FAO‘s pentennial
Forest Resources Assessment, which will give a more accurate picture
of the state of the world‘s bamboo forests. We estimated global
bamboo species diversity and highlighted threatened habitats and
species with UNEP(see Bystriakova et al 2002).
Demonstrating new conservation techniques
20

21. With local partners in Sichuan, Yunnan and Hunan provinces in China,
INBAR has innovated new conservation techniques for endangered
bamboo stands that improve productivity whist protecting the forest,
and together we are developing a management standard to enable
replication.
MDG 8: Develop a global partnership for development
Facilitating development of national and local institutional support
systems in nine countries
Through our development projects we have fostered the
development of bamboo based NGOs in INBAR member countries,
such as Ecuador, Ghana, India, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Mozambique
and helped facilitate government bamboo initiatives in India, Ghana
and Mozambique that are now leading the development of the
sector in these countries.
Developing standardized customs codes for more accurate reporting
of bamboo and rattan trade, and an online trade statistics database
We worked with the World Customs Organization and other partners
to produce bamboo specific categories and codes that are being
used to track international trade more accurately since 2007. The
INBAR online bamboo and rattan trade database provides easy
access to the data.
Developing building codes for bamboo structures
Bamboo building codes for round pole houses have been adopted
by the International Standards Organization and provide a basis for
developing national legislation for bamboo buildings (see Anon, 2004).
The GBHP is presently working on similar codes for engineered
bamboo buildings.
Promoting commodity-based development
As the International Commodity Body for Bamboo and Rattan of the
Common Fund for Commodities, INBAR facilitates the development
and implementation of many bamboo commodity-based projects
that help our member states develop bamboo and rattan as viable
market-based options.
These achievements would not have been possible without the
networking approach. We like to believe that the work done together
not only has had real impact in the communities and on the
environment, but that it also has grown all the partners involved,
helped partners to learn from each other, and made all better at
doing development with bamboo. Further development of the network
is essential, as more and more organizations are seeing the possibilities
of bamboo. Meetings such as this one are excellent opportunities to re-
21

22. connect with many partners, to link in with new ones, and we look
forward to working in an even more close partnership with the bamboo
sector, not least so we can respond effectively to the MAD challenge.
References
Anon. 2004. Bamboo - Structural Design. ISO 22156:2004 International
Standards Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
Bystriakova, N.; Kapos, V.; Lysenko, I. 2002. Potential distribution of
woody bamboos in South, South-East and East Asia, Papua New
Guinea and Australia. INBAR, Beijing.
Bystriakova, N.; Kapos, V.; Lysenko, I. 2002. Potential distribution of
woody bamboos in Africa and America. INBAR, Beijing
INBAR, 2006. In Partnership for a Better World – Strategy to the Year 2015.
Beijing, China. 20pp
Kutty, V.; Narayanan, C. 2003. Greening Red Earth - Bamboo's role in
the environmental and socio-economic rehabilitation of villages
devastated by brick mining. INBAR, Beijing
Liese, W. In Press. Bamboo as carbon sink – fact or fiction? Proceedings
of the 8th World Bamboo Congress, Bangkok, Thailand..
Paudel, S.K.; Greenberg, D.; Henrikson, R. 2008. Visionary Bamboo
Designs for Ecological Living. INBAR, Beijing, China. 102pp
Ramanuja Rao, I.V.; Kumar, A.; Reza, S.; Motukuri, B. In press. A Pathway
out of Poverty – Bamboo incense stick production as a livelihood
option for rural women in Tripura, India. INBAR, Beijing.
Svendsen A, Laberge, M. 2007. How to Build a Stakeholder Network.
Notes for Practitioners Series. Corerelations Consulting Inc, USA.
(www.sfu.ca/cscd/cli/network.pdf - accessed 20 July 2009)
Xiao, Y.; Inoue, M.; Paudel, S.K. 2008. Modern Bamboo Structures.
Proceedings of the First International Conference on Modern Bamboo
Structures (ICBS-2007), Changsha, China, 28 – 30 October 2007. CRC
Press, Boca Raton, USA.
22

23. The General Condition and Related Policies of Bamboo
Industry Development in China
Jiang Sannai
Email: jiangsannai@sina.com
Afforestation Department of SFA, P R China
1. BAMBOO RESOURCE IN CHINA
(1) Bamboo Area: Bamboo forest is an important part of forest resources in
China. There are 16 provinces in Southern China where is suitable to plant
bamboo. According to the result of the 6 th national forest resource survey
(released in 2005), there are more than 4.8 million hectares of bamboo
now in China, while there was 4.2 million hectares in the 5th national forest
resource survey result (released in 2000). It means that from 2000 to 2005,
the bamboo area has been increasing by rate of 1300 thousands
hectares annually. In the recent years, promoted by the six key forestry
projects such as converting grain-land to forest-land project (grain to
green), shelterbelt forest projects, high-yield and fast-growth forest project,
and so on, the bamboo planting area is increased by higher rate annually.
(2) Bamboo Species: There are 37 genus and more than 500 species of
bamboo in China, and among them, there are 16 genus and more than
200 species have high economical and ecological value. Mao bamboo
(Phyllostachys heterocycla var. pubescens) is the most widely planted
and utilized specie. According to the using purpose, bamboo forest can
be classified into four types as culm-producing bamboo forest, shoot-
producing bamboo forest, culm and shoot-producing bamboo forest,
and ornamental bamboo forest.
2. BAMBOO PRODUCTS AND ECONOMY
From the Reforming and Opening policy was put into effect, especially in
the recent years, bamboo industry in China has been developing highly
and an integrated industry chain line has been formed, which includes
bamboo cultivation, bamboo products, bamboo export trade and other
service for bamboo industry. Bamboo industry has become the fastest-
developing and most potential industry in forestry industry in China. Up to
date, the total annual bamboo industry producing values in China have
reached up to more than 66 billion RMB.
(1) Bamboo products: In China, the bamboo products include bamboo
plywood, bamboo shaving/particle board, bamboo furniture, bamboo
23

24. floor board, bamboo mat, bamboo charcoal products, bamboo fibre
products (clothes, socks, et al), bamboo building material, bamboo food
(shoot), and so on. Generally, there are more than 100 series of bamboo
products and thousands species of bamboo products. In last two years,
1.2 to 1.3 billion poles of bamboo, more than 4 million tons of fresh
bamboo shoot, more than 600 thousands tons of dry bamboo shoot, more
than 3.3 million cubic meters of bamboo plywood and bamboo shaving
board, more than 20 million cubic meters of bamboo-wood composite
floor board were produced in China every year.
(2) Bamboo scientific-technical research and development: In the recent
years, we have acquired great progresses in these fields as bamboo forest
management technologies (such as fertilizing, irrigation and other
technical for high-yield bamboo forest management), bamboo products
researching and developing, bamboo product quality and processing
technical standards. By now, we have recommended and practiced
more than 500 practicable technologies of bamboo industry, and have
more than 450 patent bamboo products and bamboo technologies.
3. MAIN SUPPORTING POLICIES
(1) Governmental subsidy policy supported by key forestry projects:
Among the existing key forestry projects, there are three projects have
financial subsidy policy to support bamboo industry development, they
are converting grain-land into forest-land project, Yangtze River and Pearl
River shelterbelt project, high-yield and fast-growth forest project.
The converting grain-land into forest-land project: the central government
provides food subsidy and living fee subsidy to farmers who convert grain
land into forest land (including bamboo forest). The subsidy standard is: in
Yangtze River area and southern China, the central government provides
2250 kg grain (rice or wheat) per hectare per year to farmers who
converted grain land into forest land. And from 2004, the grain subsidy has
been changed into money subsidy (the exchanging ratio is that 1 kg grain
means 1.40 yuan RMB). Since 2009, the subsidy standard is increased up to
3000 yuan per hectare. On the mean time, the central government
provides farmers 300 yuan RMB as living fee subsidy for per hectare of
converted grain-land. The subsidy period is 8 years.
24

25. High-yield and fast-growth forest project: in this project, the central
government provides financial support to farmers and corporation who
cultivate high-yield and fast-growth forest including bamboo forest. The
governmental financial subsidy is mainly used to forest fire control, forest
pest control and high quality seedling breeding and application. On the
other hand, the central government provides state loans to high-yield and
fast-growth forest project, the repaying period and guarantee condition
for these state loans are loosened than common loan.
Yangtze River and Pearl River shelterbelt forest project: in this project, the
central government subsidizes those farmers 1500 yuan RMB who finished
1 hectare of shelterbelt forest plantation. Since 2009, the subsidy standard
is increased up to 3000 yuan RMB per hectare.
Integrated agricultural development fund for bamboo industry: in order to
promote the process of modern agriculture, the central government
established a special fund called integrated agricultural development
fund. Farmers can apply for this fund to develop bamboo industry, and
use it to carry out these activities as follow: low-quality bamboo forest
regeneration (including fertilizing, irrigation, reclamation, tending and so
on), infra-structure building for bamboo industry (including working-road
building and repairing in forest land, irrigation installation building in forest
land), and popularizing and training the farmers about bamboo
cultivating technologies.
(2) Bamboo cutting policy
In order to accelerate bamboo forest cultivating process, the state and
local government have amended the forest cutting policies several times
in the recent years. According to the actual forest cutting policy, the all-
level forestry administration must simplify the examining and approving
procedure for forest cutting, and should provide technical service and
supervising management to the farmers. Especially, since 2002, the central
government no longer sent down annual plan for bamboo forest cutting,
the bamboo cutting plan has been decided by the farmers themselves
under the supervision of local forestry administration agencies.
(3) Financial supporting policy
25

26. Recently, in order to cooperating to the being-practiced reform of
collective forest right system, the People‘s Bank of China (PBC, the
financial administration agency of the central government of China) and
other 4 ministries hand in hand draw up a series of financial supporting
policy to promote forestry reform and development. All these policies are
beneficial to bamboo industry development, too.
Firstly, all banks are required to carry out forestry loan businesses actively.
By the time being, State Development Bank, Agricultural Development
Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and Countryside Credit
Cooperation of China carry out loan businesses for farmers guaranteed
by their forest right. According to the requirement of PBC, all kind, all level
of financial organizations should carry out forestry loan businesses for
farmers, these loan businesses include loan businesses guaranteed by
forest right, small-scale credited loan businesses for farmers, loan
businesses guaranteed by farmers leagues and so on. On the mean time,
in those key forestry counties, it is supported to accelerate establishing
countryside banks, countryside mutual funds, loan companies and other
new countryside financial organizations. By these policies, we hope to
establish high effective loan market systems for countryside forestry
development.
Secondly, the forestry loan period are required to elongate. By now,
implemented by various financial organizations, the forestry loan period to
farmers is 1 year, and the forestry loan to forestry corporations is less than 5
years, generally. This period is too short for forestry development.
According to the new policy for forestry reform and development, the
longest loan period has been extended to 10 years.
Thirdly, the loan interest rate is required to let down. According to the new
policy sent by PBC, The interest rate for small-scale loan for forestry farmers
is required to be low than 1.3 times of the standard interest rate prescribed
by PBC. On the other hand, all-level governmental financial agencies are
required to subsidize interest rate for forestry farmers.
Fourthly, loan services are required to improve. In order to make farmers
get loan as soon as possible, PBC requires all financial organizations
(various banks) to expand the loan business right of their local branches,
optimize and simplify their loan examining procedures.
26

27. Fifthly, establish forest insurance systems. Facing the conditions of long
management period, being apt to be harmful of forest fire, flood, snow,
freeze and other disasters to forestry management, the central and
several province government ( for example, Zhejiang province, Jiangxi
province) have been exploring to establish forest insurance systems. These
systems are being testing and experimental stage.
(4) Reform of collective forest right
Since 2006, this reform started in Jiangxi province and Fujian province.
Then, the reform zone extended gradually. On the base of trial and
experiment, in 2008, the central government let out the comment on how
to promote collective forest right reform all over the country. By now,
there are 5 province have finished key reform, 25 province are improving
this reform, and they are amending related policies to accelerate forestry
development. According to this reform,
Firstly, farmers can truly own forest land right and forest woods right, and
farmers‘ host status to their forest land and forest woods have been
confirmed through contractual management responsibility.
Secondly, the contractual management period for forest land have been
elongated up to 70 years, this is corresponding to forestry management,
and is very good for farmers to manage their forest sustainability.
Compared to forest land, the contractual management period for
agriculture land is only 30 years.
Thirdly, the earnings from contractual forest land belong to farmers. In
order to protect farmer benefits, if government levies forest land
contracted by farmers, the government must pay the farmers full of their
forest land compensating fee, settlement subsidy fee, forest woods
compensating fee and so on. If government brings the forest land
contracted by farmers into national ecological forest, the government
need pay these farmers ecological forest subsidy fee. ( the subsidy
standard is 75 yuan RMB per hectare now, since 2010, it maybe increase
up to 10 yuan RMB, and this standard will be increased gradually ). By now,
there are two subsidy ways, one is from central government financial
subsidy, and other is from provincial government financial subsidy.
27

28. Fourthly, according to the newly amended administrative system of forest
cultivation funds, the forest cultivation fund levied from farmers must be
low than 10 percent of the selling income value of forestry products, and
in certain district the levying standard for this fund can be 0. Supported by
this policy, farmers can be greatly encouraged to cultivate forest
resources including bamboo forest, and it is beneficial to wood products
and bamboo industry development.
(5) Support for bamboo industry associations and farmer’s specialty
cooperative organizations
Firstly, in 2008, according to the law of farmer‘s specialty cooperative
organizations, Treasury ministry and General Taxation Administration of the
central government made a rule that, for agricultural product, seed,
fertilizer, pesticide, agricultural machines sell by farmer‘s specialty
cooperative organizations to their own members, the value added tax is
duty free.
Secondly, treasury ministry of the central government establishes special
training subsidy fund for farmers. This fund is specially subsidized to the
training organizations which provide scientific and technical training to
farmers. The training organizations must be openly selected by certain
agencies (for example, central ministry and local-level bureaus of human
resource and social guarantee), including a variety of agriculture colleges,
agricultural research institutes, farmer‘s specialty cooperative
organizations, agricultural industry companies and so on.
Thirdly, the central government finance budget especially setup
expenditure for development of farmer‘s specialty cooperative
organizations. This budget expenditure is mainly used in introducing new
technologies and new plant species, employing technical specialists,
providing training and information services to farmers and so on.
4. MAIN PROBLEMS
Firstly, bamboo industry develops non-balanced among different zone. In
east China, for example, Zhejiang province, Fujian province and
Guangdong province, bamboo industry have been developing very fast
and sustainable in the recent years, bamboo industry product value of
these 3 provinces have been more than 60 percent of the total value of
28

29. bamboo industry of China. In west China, for example, Guangxi
autonomy region, Sichuan province, Yunnan province, Guizhou province,
bamboo industry have been developing very fast recently, too. But, in the
central part of China, for example, Hunan province, Jiangxi province,
Hubei province, Anhui province, although they have abundant bamboo
resources, the bamboo product industry developed slowly in the recent
years.
Secondly, the advantage of bamboo species can not be brought into
play. There are more than 500 species of bamboo in China, but, by now,
there are only 20 or so bamboo species have been developed and
applied widely in the practice. Mao bamboo have been developed and
applied more than thousands years and the management level is high,
but some small-round bamboo and sympodial bamboo species can not
be developed and applied extensively.
Thirdly, the productive ability of bamboo forest land is low. In China, there
is only one quarter of bamboo forest have reached the national standard
of high-yield bamboo forest, the area of intensively managed bamboo
forest is not large, and there are large scale of low-quality, low-
productivity bamboo forest.
Fourthly, local bamboo industry associations can not be effectively
organized and developed. Currently, local bamboo industry association is
being in beginning stage, the number of local associations is lack, the
proportion of farmers in various bamboo industry associations is low, and
these local associations are too depend on government agency, the
ability of self-development, self-management and self-service is weak.
5. MAIN COUNTERMEASURES
(1) Enforce scientific and technical innovation. Try best to let all-level
finance agencies to put more attention to bamboo product processing
technologies, bamboo germ plasma resources protect, improved variety
breeding, bamboo forest management, integrated use of bamboo
resources and so on.
(2) Enforce infrastructure construction of bamboo forest. Try best to let all-
level financial agencies to put more attention to forest land road, fertilizer,
29

30. irrigation and other infrastructure building, to increase the management
level and productivity of bamboo forest.
(3) Enforce balance development of bamboo industry. Encourage to
develop and research small-round and sympodial bamboo. On one hand,
continue to develop economical bamboo forest as culm-producing
bamboo stand, shoot-producing bamboo stand, culm and shoot-
producing bamboo stand, on the other hand, put more attention to the
development of ornamental bamboo stand, ecological bamboo forest.
(4) Enforce bamboo industry association organizing ability. Encourage to
develop all-level bamboo industry association, actively cultivate bamboo
product broker and manager markets, actively support leaded bamboo
product companies.
(5) Improve the ability of bamboo industry to cope with international
economic risk. According to the new situation after China enter into WTO,
on one hand, we will continue to accelerate domestic bamboo industry
development, on the other hand, we will pay more attention to the
international bamboo industry developing trend, enforce dealing with
international dispute, enforce training and service about international
trade principle, patent right and so on, in order to improve the coping-
with-risk ability of bamboo industry of China.
30

31. Main Experience of Sustainable Bamboo Development
in China
Zhu Zhaohua
Email: zhzhu@inbar.int
Distinguished Fellow of INBAR for Life
1. BACKGROUND
The cultivation of bamboo in China has a long history. During the reign of
the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), there were large areas of cultivated
bamboo plantations, with a reach far north that of the present distribution.
In his poem depicting the Qinchuan region of Shaanxi Province, Li Xin, a
poet from the Tang Dynasty, wrote: ―The sound of the autumn bamboo in
tens of thousands of households, the colour of the cold pine on the
imperial tomb.‖ Now, however, bamboo stands can no longer be found in
that region.
The history of bamboo utilization and processing in China can be traced
back 5,000 to 6,000 years. The 200 sets of various kinds of woven bamboo
products excavated from Banpo Village (3,600-6,800 years ago) in Xi‘an
and from Qianshan in Zhejiang province show that Neolithic man (3,200-
3,000 BC) had already mastered bamboo weaving techniques. There
were bamboo palaces in the Han Dynasty period (206 BC-220 CE) and, in
the Jin Dynasty period (265-316 CE), DaiKai,an expert in
bamboo,published a special monograph on bamboo called Zhu Pu,
which introduced techniques of bamboo cultivation and utilization and
dried bamboo shoot making. It also states that bamboo is a special type
of plant---nonherb and nonwood, which belongs neither to an
herbaceous plant nor to a woody plant.
Before paper was invented, bamboo tablets were one of the earliest
carriers of Chinese characters. In the Yin and Shang period (1,600-1,100
BC), there were books made from bamboo tabletss. The process of
bamboo pulping and high-grade paper making from year-old tender
bamboo has been around since the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 CE). The
calligraphy brush, with its animal hair tip and bamboo culm handle, has
been in existence before the Shang Dynasty, more than 4,000 years ago.
In ancient China, bamboo was also used to issue orders and commands–
a piece of wood as a symbol of power that military commanders used to
issue orders and deploy forces. In ancient days, the Chinese also used
bamboo to make various kinds of musical instruments: these instruments
have important place in traditional Chinese music. It should especially be
31

32. pointed out that the Chinese have always viewed bamboo as a spiritual
symbol. Celebrities and writers through the ages have written numerous
articles and poems praising bamboo. One of them is a poem wriiten by
the famous poet SuShi in Song Dynasty, which shows the high place of
bamboo in people‘s mind and life. It says that:‖ without meat people can
survive but without bamboo they can‘t. Without meat people grow thin,
but without bamboo they become vulgar. People can grow fat if they are
thin, but have no way to become gentle if they are vulgar.‖ Thus,
bamboo has contributed greatly to the material and spiritual culture of
China.
2. THE RAPID GROWTH OF CHINA’S BAMBOO INDUSTRY
The industralization of China‘s bamboo making begins very late. Before
1980, China‘s bamboo industry was mainly based on traditional manul
processing, besides using it as raw material for papermaking. Bamboo
farmers sold raw bamboo as their main mode of operation which was
mostly used in civil architecture、knitted commodities、handicraft articles
and farm implements. Except for consuming by the famers, most of
bamboo shoots were directly sold in the local market when they were
fresh. Some of them were made into dried bamboo shoot and briny
bamboo shoot by traditional process techniqh. In the early 1980s, after
the introduction of bamboo processing machine from Taiwan, bamboo
process industry began to mechanize. Bamboo and bamboo shoot
prodcts not only satisfied the needs of the people in our county, but also
exported in the the large quantities. The output value of bamboo industry
increased from 0.6 billion USD in 1990 to 7.5 billion USD in 2006. We can see
the development from the figures below.
2.1 Chinese bamboo resources
China has a rich reserve of bamboo resources. According to the 1993
data from the Chinese Ministry of Forestry, there were 3.79 million hectares
(ha) of bamboo stands (excluding alpine bamboo stands, mixed forests in
which bamboo is not the primary species, and stands of useless bamboo),
among which 3.52 million ha are natural and 0.27 million ha have been
cultivated. State-owned bamboo stands account for only 6.93% of the
total, while much of the remianing bamboo stands are managed by
individuals or collectives. Phyllostachys heterocycla var. pubescens (Mazel)
Ohwi, or Moso, is the predominate species, occupying an area of 2.60
million ha. However, since 2000 manual management has been
introduced in many natural bamboo forests, so most of them have
become man-made bamboo plantations.
32

33. China is a centre of bamboo diversity with nearly 500 species in 39 genera
present within its borders, among which there are 179 species of
monopodial bamboos (71.6% of the total number of monopodial species
in the world) in 12 genera (92.3% that of the world). In China, there are
four regions and two sub-regions of bamboo distribution – within the
overall geographical limits between 18-35° and 85-120° and within
N E,
major distribution over the tropical and subtropical zones south of 40°N.
Figure 1: Increase of China's bamboo plantation area
(in million ha)
5 4.84 4.9
4.5 4.5
4.2 4.26
4 3.79
3.5 3.2
3 2.98
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
1976 1980 1995 1998 2000 2003 2004 2005
Since the 1950s, the Chinese government has attached great importance
to the development of bamboo plantations. By 1980, the total area of
bamboo plantations in the country had reached 3.20 million ha and, for
the following 20 years, the national increase in bamboo plantations
averaged 50,000 ha per year (Figure 1). Similarly, the culm production of
Moso bamboo increased from about 75 million in 1975 to 600 million by
2003 (Figure 2). The output of other bamboo based on ton. In terms of
tonnage, annual bamboo raw material production increased from 17
million tonnes in 1975 to 18 million tonnes by 2003 and 20 million tonnes by
2005 (Figure 3)
33

34. 2.2 The output of Chinese bamboo industry and the export of bamboo
products
Since 1985, China has begun to introduce bamboo-processing machines
in mainland from Taiwan. The industrial processing first started in Zhejiang
and Fujian, and then reached to Jiangxi、Yunnan、Hunan、Guangdong
provinces and so on. Up to 1990s, with the development of bamboo
processing machines, most of which are made by the companies in
mainland, bamboo industrial processing has been extensively used in all
the provinces where produce bamboo. The annual output of fresh
bamboo shoot is about 5 million ton, of which 40% are treated in industrial
processing. From 1990, mechanization and industrialization of bamboo
shoot processing began. Besides exporting to Japan 、Korea、China‘s
Hongkon and Taiwan, since 2000 the bamboo shoot has been exported
to the market in American and Europe.
34

35. Figure 3: Increase of China's bamboo production
(in million tons/year, not include Moso bamboo)
20
20
18
15 16.3
10
10.5
5
1.7 1.9
0
1975 1979 1996 2000 2003 2005
Figure 4: China's bamboo industry production value
(in billion US$)
8
7.2
7
6
5 6.3
4 5.45
3
3.5
2
2.3
1 1.7
0.6 1.1
0
1990 1996 1998 2000 2003 2004 2005 2006
Figure 5: China's bamboo product export
(in million US$)
1200 1200
1000
800
800 950
600
650 700
400
439 500
200
170 35
0
1990 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2005 2006

36. The output of the bamboo industry has seen remarkably steady increases
from 1990 (figure 4), with the output value touching US$ 7.2 billion by 2005.
China‘s bamboo exports are mainly to Japan, North American and South
Asia. Bamboo product exports have grown from US$170 million in 1990 to
US $ 1200 million in 2006 (figure 5).
Figures 4 and 5 show that the output of bamboo production and bamboo
product export have both grown rapidly between 1990-2006. During this
time, the output and export values have increased by elevenfold and
sixfold respectively. The main reason for export value‘s comparatively
slower growth is that the export value from some bamboo products is
often accredited to non-bamboo products. For example: the output
value of bamboo furniture is categorized under furniture; bamboo shoot
products are categorized under food. Therefore, the export value of
bamboo production is much higher than the stated in figure 5.
3. Factors Contributing to the Success of China’s Bamboo Industry
Why does China‘s bamboo industry have such rapid growth in twenty
years? What is the secret? Here I will answer it from several perspectives:
the research and development of new technologies and new product;
effective technology dissemination system; government‘s policies and
support system; supply chain for bamboo industry development and multi-
party NGOs.
3.1 New technologies and new products: research and development
China has a long and rich bamboo culture. Bamboo is very important in
people‘s life, so scientists have always attached great importance to the
research on bamboo. Especially after the foundation of the People's
Republic of China, it has been widely and thoroughly studied. There are
about 300 scientists do research on bamboo, meanwhile more scientists
and technicians engage in technology dissemination work. This provides
the good foundation for the rapid development of bamboo industry.
3.1.1 Bamboo taxonomy
Chinese scientists have been researching the taxonomy of bamboo since
the 1930s and as a result, a complete taxonomic system and theory of
identifying different species have been established. The Flora Reipublicae
Popularis Sinicae (FRPS), published in 1988, covers 515 species of bamboo
in 37 genera. Since then some botanists have discovered new species
and genera. The current reckoning is that there are about 500 bamboo
species in 39 genera in China, although divergent views and disputes on
these figures still exist among botanists. For instance, FRPS records that
there are 21 genera of monopodial bamboo. Dr. Li Dezhu believes that
there are 15, while Professor Zhao Qiseng thinks that there are only 13.
36

37. Following resource research, researchers also carried out studies on ex situ
conservation and the related topic of bamboo biodiversity. Bamboo
arboretums of various scales were set up in some provinces, with the
largest ones located in Anji, Zhejiang province, and Zhangzhou, Fujian
province. The 17 ha Anji Bamboo Arboretum is the largest for monopodial
bamboo and contains almost 300 different species. The 60 ha Anhua
Bamboo Arboretum in Zhangzhou is a subtropical and tropical bamboo
arboretum, which contains a collection of more than 350 species. The
other large-scale bamboo collections are located in the South China
Arboretum in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, the World Horticultural
Exposition in Kunming, Yunan Province, Changning Bamboo Garden in
Sichuan Province and Taipinghu Bamboo and Rattan Training Centre in
Huangshan, Anhui Province.
A national survey of China‘s bamboo plantations has been planned
based on China‘s resource, distribution, and biological and ecology
research of bamboo. A survey of the forestry resources is organized every
four years, which includes bamboo resources.
3.1.2 Disease and pest control
According to a study, there are more than 600 species of insects from 280
genera that attack bamboo plants. The life span, natural predators and
prevention and control methods for 200 of these species have been
studied, and 180 relevant academic theses published on this topic. After
the long-term research, the effective monitoring, forecasting and
controlling system of bamboo disease and insect pest has been
established in the main bamboo production areas. Because prediction,
prevention and control methods have been strictly adopted and
rigorously administered, the bamboo areas like Zhejiang Anji County
haven‘t had the disastrous plant diseases and insect pests for nearly
hundred years.
3.1.3 Bamboo‘s ecology, physiology and anatomy
Since the 1980s, research relating to the ecology and physiology of
bamboo and bamboo cultivation has been carried out. Studies have
focused on subjects such as bamboo‘s growth and flowering mechanisms,
photosynthesis, mineral nutrition, hormones and enzymes, and the
physiological mechanisms of the on-year and off-year harvesting cycles.
Subjects of study related to cultivation include bamboo biomass, carbon
distribution, the movement and decomposition of dead plant material,
and the moisture and nutrition balance of the land. Results from the
37

38. studies mentioned above provide a theoretical basis for proper
propagation and cultivation techniques. In anatomic research, scientists
have used infrared electronic microscopes and specially prepared
carbonized specimens to observe, analyse, measure, and photograph
the micro and super-micro structure and the ratios of tissues of 71 bamboo
species in 33 genera. They have also extracted, classified and compared
different types of fibre, creating a comprehensive index of bamboo
materials.
3.1.4 High-yield techniques
Propagation techniques – such as raising nursery plants from mother stock,
seeds, rhizomes, culm cuttings or internodes, as well as tissue culture –
have all been systematically developed. In the field of afforestation,
concerns such as plant density, bamboo stand patterns, planting seasons
and methods, tending, fertilization, irrigation, cultivation and natural
regeneration by shoots have been studied.
The direction of research on bamboo cultivation has gone through three
phases since the 1950s: the improvement of low-yield stands, the
management of high-yield stands, and the cultivation of highly efficient
high-yield plantations for specific purposes. Currently, 10% of bamboo
stands are high-yield type and 30% are medium-yield. Even though low-
yield stands have been reduced by 20%, there are still large areas of low-
yielding natural bamboo stands that can be improved and developed.
As an example of the differences in output, high-yielding Phyllostachys
heterocycla Var. pubescens (Mazel) Ohwi stands have a culm output of
22.5-30.0 t/ha every two years while that of the medium-yield stands of the
bamboo has an output of 15.0 t/ha in the same period. High-yielding
stands of the undersized Phyllostachys siebold Chust Chao and
Phyllostachys praecox C.D.Chu et C.S.Chao can yield even more superior
bamboo shoots with an annual production of 30 t/ha.
In order to obtain higher economic efficiency, the research target for the
past decade has been to achieve ―high yield of both shoots and culm‖.
Present field production has reached the following standard levels: on a
1,000 ha scale, high-yield plantations produce 20,000 bamboo culms/ha
and 1,600 shoots/ha every two years. However, there is scope for higher
yields – on a scale of 100 ha, the output of bamboo culm can reach 30
t/ha in two years and shoot output can reach 3 t/ha in two years. The
highest output of bamboo culm at the scale of 1 ha is 47 t/ha in two years
and for shoots 4.8 t/ha in two years. Much attention has also been paid
recently to the study of multi-species planting in order to ensure that fresh
bamboo shoots are available year round. These research achievements
38

39. have increased the efficiency and benefits of cultivation for bamboo
farmers.
The above-mentioned species are all subtropical bamboos. Tropical
sympodial species may be of higher yield than subtropical species. For
example, the sympodial species, Dendrocalamus latiflorus, can reach
production of 45 t/ha per year while D. giganteus can reach an even
higher annual production rate of 70-80 t/ha.
3.1.5 Genetic improvement
For the past 20 years, bamboo breeding in China has focused on the
hybridization of sympodial species. Based on the biological and anatomic
research on bamboo flowering cycles, pollination and bamboo
chromosomes, high-yield hybrids with superior culms, fibres and shoots
have been developed. Scientists have mastered hybridization
technologies such as parent selection, pollen preparation and timing,
optimal light exposure, pest and disease control, and hybrid propagation.
The scientists have selected 4 superior hybrids from among 7 species in 4
genera, which possess the advantages of fast growth, good stem form,
high long-fibre content, long life span, resistance against disease, and
tasty bamboo shoots with high amino acid content. For example, 100 g of
dried shoots of the hybrid Bambusa pervariablilis X Dedrocalamus latiflorus
No.7 contains 21.57 g of amino acids, of which 7.05 g are essential to the
human body. This amino acid content is higher than that found in the non-
hybrid species D. latiflorus.
Because scientists have successfully resolved the technical problems
surrounding tissue culture, it is now possible to propagate hybrids at a
higher rate. The test-tube strike rate is 90% with an average transplanting
survival rate of more than 70% (the highest survival rate is 93.3%). Hybrid
bamboo cultivation has now exceeded 666 ha in China. Research has
found that there are many seedling varieties, providing opportunities for
further selection. Suitable clones have already been selected from the
seedlings of D. latiforus.
Scientists have observed the flowering of three bamboo species in test-
tubes – D. latiflorus, D. brandisii and Bambusa perariabilis x D. Latiflorus
No.7. They have discovered the genetic, physiological and micro-
environmental factors that cause their flowering, opening the way for
future acceleration of breeding.
3.1.6 Bamboo processing technology
39

40. Compared with wood timber, bamboo culm has several advantages that
make it ideal for use in construction and decoration: fast growth and
regeneration, high density and production, better material properties,
straight and smooth grain, and superior colour and lustre. However,
properties such as the small culm diameter, thin outer skin, hollow stem,
and high starch and protein contents (making it less resistant to pests and
corrosion) make bamboo less favourable than wood timber.
Chinese scientists have carried our studies on preservation methods that
suit the special properties of bamboo. They have also developed
processing techniques for various kinds of bamboo plywood including
bamboo mat plywood, bamboo curtain plywood, bamboo chipboard
and bamboo laminated board. They have developed a series of boards
of various industrial and commercial uses. The 4000-6000 mm × 15-25 mm
overlay board is used as flooring for motor trucks and railway carriages.
The polished wooden cement mould board in large-scale construction
applications, while the high-grade parquet flooring tiles have made a
mark in overseas market. Bamboo particleboard – which is made from low
quality bamboo and used as common concrete mould board – is
cheaper, has a higher density, and a smaller expansion rate on moisture
absorption than wood timber. After it has been found that bamboo
contains properties that make it suitable as a composite material,
scientists have developed different types of bamboo-reinforced
composite materials. Other notable bamboo-based products include
bamboo fibreboard, bamboo pipe, non-flat-board construction sets,
bamboo core board, laminates and bamboo-wood composites. Bamboo
furniture has been a success, with dining tables and office furniture
entering the market in large quantities.
In the bamboo mat sector, domestic and export markets for several
products – such as bamboo mahjong mats (a mat of small bamboo tiles
stringed together), strip mats, woven mats, various types of window and
decorative curtains, and non-woven bamboo carpet – have been
growing rapidly.
3.1.7 Bamboo shoot processing technology
Many bamboo species in China have edible shoots and, among them,
more than 40 species are major shoot producers. These include:
Phyllostachys heterocycla var. pubescens, Ph. Iridescens, Ph. dulcis, Ph.
nuda, Ph. praecox cv. prevernalis, Dendrocalamopsis oldhami, D.
beecheyana, D. beecheyana var. pubescens, Dendrocalamus latiflorus,
D. brandisii and Fargesia yunnanensis. Research has shown that the
bamboo shoot is an ideal low-fat vegetable that creates no envriomental
problem in its cultivation, has a high protein (2-4%) and edible cellulose
40

41. contents, and contains many kinds of amino acids and mineral elements.
For those living in areas where availability of selenium is low, the bamboo
shoot of Ph. heterocycla var. pubescens offers a high content (0.058-2.65
µg/g) of this mineral, which is necessary for health. In the past, people
used to eat fresh bamboo shoots directly and the only traditional bamboo
shoot processing technique was drying.
Development of fresh shoot processing techniques, which began in the
1990s, has led to the availability of a wide range of products with diverse
flavours and different packaging. This research has greatly increased the
value and marketability of bamboo shoots. Consequently, many
processing plants have been established and both dried shoots and
canned shoots are now produced. Shoots are now processed and
available round the year because of recent improvements in bamboo
shoot processing technology. The shoot processing industry and the
volume of shoots exported are growing fast.
3.1.8 Bamboo leaf extracts and their utilization
The use of bamboo leaf, sap and the yellow part of the bamboo for
medicine can be traced back to the ancient times, and medical texts of
that time document its uses in detail. The Chinese Hygiene Department
keeps bamboo leaves on its list of natural plants that has both nutritive
and medical properties. Chinese scientists have recently begun to
recognize the useful components of bamboo leaves. They have found
large amounts of flavoids and biologically active compounds (as much as
in Ginkgo biloba leaves) in the leaves of certain of monopodial bamboo
species. It has been shown that bamboo leaf extract is resistant to free
radicals, oxidation and biological degradation, and that it can also help
reduce the content of fat and cholesterol in blood. Bamboo leaf extract
can be used extensively in the food, beverage, medical and cosmetic
industries, making it of great value. The extraction technology used on
bamboo leaves is now being applied in industrial flavoids production for
medicine, food and beverages.
3.1.9 Bamboo charcoal and bamboo coal tar
Since the 1990s, research on bamboo charcoal and its by-product coal
tar has gained importance in China. Consequently, bamboo charcoal
and coal tar production has emerged as an important industry in the
bamboo sector. Bamboo products are now widely used in people‘s daily
lives such as pillow, mattress, automobile cushion, shoe pad, soap,
toothpaste, hand stove and so on. They are also used for environment
protection such as air cleanser used in room, refrigerator and automobile,
41