Bamboo Sea of Muke

Bamboo Sea of Muke

The Bamboo Sea of Muke is located 1.5 kilometers southeast of Tachuan, 15 kilometers north of Yi County, and 4 kilometers from Hongcun. The mountains are covered with lush bamboo forests, and as there are not many visitors, it is very quiet and refreshing. Under good weather conditions, you can even witness a sea of clouds similar to that of Huangshan Mountain. It is the filming location for the bamboo forest fight scene in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Muke is famous for its bamboo sea, situated at the eastern gateway of Taoyuan Mountain Village and serving as the first village one encounters when entering Yi from Huangshan. Also known as "Dripping Green Valley," this valley extends approximately six kilometers, surrounded on all sides by verdant bamboo, shaped like a golden ingot that gathers wealth without leakage, boasting excellent feng shui. After the rain, with mist among the deep green bamboo and houses among the clouds; at sunrise, it resembles the sea of clouds of Huangshan, with waves of green; and enjoying the moon in the valley feels like being in a heavenly realm.

Within the territory of Muke, there are six valleys and ten scenic spots, making the experience as enchanting as a paradise on earth.

In recent years, it has attracted many poets, painters, and photographers. Chen Bo, Vice Chairman of the National Photographers Association, Tian Yuan, Executive Director, and renowned Hong Kong photographers Chen Fuli and Qian Wanli have all come here to create works. Muke has now been developed into a tourist attraction, and visitors can take local transportation from Hongcun to get there.

The Oscar-winning blockbuster film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which was hugely popular in 2001, filmed its iconic "bamboo forest sword fight" scene here. Many visitors mistakenly think it’s from Emerald Valley, but the bamboo forest is actually from Muke, while the pool into which the characters leap is the Seven-Colored Pool in Emerald Valley. That’s the magic of filmmaking.

For a long time, the Muke scenic area was developed primarily for sightseeing tourism, with slow progress and limited success. However, with the rise of rural tourism in recent years, Yi County has organized various events such as the China Huangshan Rural Tourism Festival and the International Mountain Bike Race, vigorously promoting rural vacation tourism in Yi County and greatly boosting its development. At the same time, the Muke scenic spot seized the opportunity and repositioned itself under a rural leisure and vacation tourism model. It developed and rebranded tourism offerings such as bamboo sea sightseeing, mountain biking, photography, and agritainment. The area also increased its external promotion efforts—setting up a webpage on the Sohu website, hosting a Taiwan-based CTi TV crew to produce a feature documentary, and conducting promotional tours across East China. These initiatives laid a solid foundation for the booming popularity of the Muke scenic spot.