Green Bamboo Scenic Area

Green Bamboo Scenic Area

The Green Bamboo Scenic Area is located in the southwestern part of Luoning County, about 6 kilometers from the county seat, within the Funiu Mountain Ecotourism Zone.

According to the Luoning County Annals, the light bamboo in Luoning has a history of over 4,000 years of growth, making it a rare and typical ancient bamboo forest in its original ecological state in northern China. It is situated at the highest latitude in the world, at 34°38′ north. The light bamboo in Luoning is the highest-latitude bamboo forest discovered so far in the world—no such spectacle exists at this latitude in Europe, America, Japan, or other regions of China. The landscape is unique. The light bamboo in Luoning covers a large area and is widely distributed, with bamboo gardens found in all 18 towns and townships across the county. Due to varying environments, each forms a distinctive bamboo forest landscape, rich in the charm of western Henan. It enjoys a long-standing reputation. Since ancient times, Luoning has been known as the “Hometown of Green Bamboo,” famous across the Central Plains, with bamboo products exported to Europe, America, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The Luoning light bamboo forests have a profound historical and cultural heritage. The story of “Meng Zong Crying for Bamboo Shoots” from the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars took place in Luoning. The “Treatise on Music” in the Book of Han records that the Yellow Emperor once ordered his minister Ling Lun to establish musical pitches, and Ling Lun selected bamboo tubes in the Jindao area of Luoning to make musical instruments, thus creating Xia Hua music. Based on this historical account, this place is considered the birthplace of musical pitch. Throughout history, many literati and scholars have visited Luoning to admire and write poems about the bamboo.

The Green Bamboo Scenic Area currently features over 680 acres of original light bamboo forests and more than 50 other species of ornamental bamboo. Within the park, there is a wall engraved with bamboo poems by Zheng Banqiao, stone carvings of famous lines by the Qing Dynasty poet Wang Duo, a bamboo forest guesthouse, bamboo pavilions, a bamboo culture corridor, a bamboo tea house, and stone tables and chairs. Naturally formed clusters of five garden bamboo groves are embraced by the Jindao River, with emerald waters and green bamboo, connected by paths and bridges, creating a pleasant scenery. Ling Lun, the Yellow Emperor’s music official, once collected bamboo here to make musical instruments, and this place is regarded as the birthplace of Chinese music. The great Qing Dynasty calligrapher Wang Duo visited this area and left behind the exquisite quatrain: “A three-step, two-arch bridge; bamboo groves in the five gardens on all four sides.” In the southwest of the bamboo garden stands an over 1,500-year-old Crown Prince Cypress, its three roots gripping the earth as it stands proudly. Revered by locals as a “sacred tree,” it adds a touch of “spirit” to the bamboo garden.

The Jindao Green Bamboo Scenic Area is the first bamboo-themed attraction developed in Luoning. Every April, the Green Bamboo Festival is held here. After the festival, visitors continue to flock to the site. Luoning is located in the middle reaches of the Luo River, which is also an important tributary of the Yellow River. It is a river of history and culture, and in recent years, with the development of tourism, it has also been hailed as a river of romance. The area boasts beautiful mountains and clear waters, a sound ecological environment, and vast contiguous bamboo forests, offering great potential for tourism development.

The scenic area’s dining section includes a large restaurant that can accommodate 150 people, 11 private rooms of various sizes, and an open-air dining shelter in the courtyard. The accommodation section features bamboo forest leisure cottages and the Green Bamboo Garden Guesthouse, with 69 beds in total, capable of hosting 150 diners and 50 overnight guests at a time. Additionally, there are 10 farmhouse guesthouses that can accommodate 150 overnight guests and serve 200 diners at a time.

Currently, the scenic area has established itself as a distinctive destination themed around bamboo sightseeing. Visitors can experience the charm of a northern bamboo village, explore the origins of Chinese music, and admire precious and rare bamboo art pieces. While enjoying leisure and entertainment, they can stay in bamboo cottages, gaze at bamboo seas, sip bamboo tea, taste bamboo shoots, shop for bamboo goods, and fulfill their desires for novelty, wonder, knowledge, and fun, allowing them to embrace and enjoy nature.