Chinese Handicrafts --- Bamboo Craft

Bamboo is one of the most wonderful and most beautiful plants of the tropics and one of nature's most valuable gifts. China is the home of about 1/3 of the world's 1300 or so species of bamboo. As the materials, they are strong, light, smooth, straight and round. They have hard outer skins and are free from any pronounced taste or smell.
Bamboo is found abundantly and grows and increases rapidly. Only four years old bamboo is ready for use. For this reason, using bamboo as one kind of material instead of wood, is the GREEN idea of saving rain forest. Bamboo's potential as a multi-purpose product for the global marketplace and the ease with which it is grown and fashioned into salable merchandise.