Anji

Anji is Zhejiang Province's most beautiful rural escape — a county of bamboo forests, tea plantations, mountain streams, and traditional villages that feels a world away from the frenetic pace of nearby Shanghai (just 2.5 hours by high-speed train). It is best known for two things: its extraordinary bamboo forests (the bamboo sea scenes in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were filmed here) and its white tea, considered among the rarest and most prized in China.

The landscape is defined by bamboo — Anji is one of China's primary bamboo-producing regions, with forests covering much of the county. Walking or cycling through the bamboo groves, where the light filters through tall green columns and the sound is all rustling leaves and birdsong, is one of the most genuinely peaceful experiences in eastern China. The China Bamboo Museum in Anji town is the world's only museum dedicated entirely to bamboo — unexpectedly fascinating.

Anji white tea (安吉白茶, Ānjí báichá) is not technically a white tea but a variety of green tea made from an albino mutation of the tea plant that produces pale yellow-green leaves in spring. It has a delicate, sweet flavour quite unlike any other Chinese tea and commands premium prices. Tea picking season in April is the best time to visit tea plantations and participate in the harvest.