In China, there are always some small towns that are amazing. Low-key and inconspicuous, they may not be known to the public, but they contain a surprising charm. Where are the "Gods" and "Qi" in these magical towns?

In Zhongtai Township, Yuhang District, Hangzhou, the provincial capital, there is a Zijing Village with an annual output of 3 million flutes and flutes, accounting for more than 85% of the global bamboo flute market. It makes scattered on the land of Zhejiang, not only poetry, but also melodious music.

Echoing with the neighboring Jiangsu, one in the middle and one in the west, people can see the elegant and elegant Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, not only the western musical instruments can be played well, but the output of traditional Chinese musical instruments is also very strong.

The first bamboo flute from heaven came from here

You may have never been to Zhongtai Township, but you must have seen the bamboo flute that came out of here.

Once in CCTV's "First Lesson of School", Shenzhou 12 astronaut Nie Haisheng showed the bamboo flute he used to pass the time in space. Not long ago, when the three astronauts of Shenzhou 13 were packing up the daily belongings left by their former team members, the bamboo flute packing box used by Nie Haisheng strayed into the camera.

This makes the people of China and Thailand proud, because it is the best proof that "the first bamboo flute to go into space came from China and Thailand".

If you know something about the flute and flute, you will know that the seemingly ordinary Zhongtai Township is not easy. There is the largest contiguous area of bitter bamboo forest in the country. There are as many as 24 species of bitter bamboo alone. It is a veritable "hometown of bitter bamboo".

Among the various types of bitter bamboos, the most productive ones are the Bamboo Leaf Bamboo and Bamboo Leaf Green Bamboo, which are used to make flutes. The bitter bamboo grown here has a unique genetic advantage, and the bamboo flute produced can have the excellent quality of "undercurrent of charm, flying sound of jade flute". Therefore, Zhongtai Township also won the official stamp of "Hometown of Bamboo Flute" by China Musical Instrument Association.

Before meeting the Zhongtai bamboo flute, most people's impression of the bamboo flute is just a bamboo pipe with holes all over it, a kind of musical instrument that can be played.

The Chinese and Thai villagers will tell you with their handicrafts that have been passed down for more than 30 years. From the silent bamboo in the forest, through nearly 70 processes, large and small, it is transformed into a flute that can emit intoxicating music. An art approaching magic.

You must know that even if the bitter bamboo forest in Zhongtai has reached the standard of "national demonstration zone", it still needs a lot of tempering to become a bamboo flute.

For the production of bamboo flute, the first choice is the bitter bamboo with a single bamboo length of more than 48 cm, a round bamboo body and symmetrical ends. Bitter bamboo has to go through three to four years of growth. Considering natural factors such as insect pests, the bitter bamboo used to make bamboo flutes will be cut down in winter, commonly known as "bamboo". After the wax bamboo is frosted, it needs to go through a natural drying period of two to three years before it can become the raw material for making the bamboo flute.

The first process starts with baking and straightening the bamboo joints. Experienced craftsmen will combine the thickness of the bamboo knot and the temperature of the electric furnace to manually shape the bamboo knot deformed by drying into a straight bamboo tube in the middle and outside in less than half a minute.

After the deep processing of removing the outer skin and clearing the diaphragm, the process automatically switches to the technical activities that affect the timbre and intonation - tuning and punching.

Experienced craftsmen determine the pitch of the bamboo flute according to the outer diameter of the bamboo joint, and then select the corresponding tuning board according to different tones such as E, F, G, etc., and determine the position of the sound hole according to the bamboo joint.

The holes of the bamboo flute don't look very different, but they actually contain the universe. According to the function, the twelve holes on the bamboo flute are divided into blow holes, membrane holes and finger holes. The hole also needs to be an oval shape that is small on the outside and large on the inside, like a horn. The size, location and function of each hole determine whether a bamboo flute can pass the tuning. If there is a timbre inaccuracy, it is necessary to correct the tuning of the twelve sound holes in turn.

Only the bamboo flute whose tuning error does not exceed five cents twice can be classified as a qualified product.

Eighty cents of bamboo flute, how to sell "100 million yuan village"

The blue-water bamboo sea and the beautiful and melodious flute sound not only allow Zhongtai to bring its own fairyland filter, but also hide the wealth code of "China's Bamboo Flute Hometown" from a small mountain village to a village of 100 million yuan.

The Chinese bamboo flute looks at Zhongtai, but the Zhongtai bamboo flute has to look at the Bauhinia.

More than 160 flute and flute production factories and more than 60 flute flute e-commerce companies have sprung up in Zijing Village. Nearly half of the villagers are busy in flute flute-related industry chains. From here, the number of bamboo flutes that go abroad and are sold overseas can reach 3 million per year, accounting for 85% of the global market.

An even more astonishing achievement is that the bamboo flute industry has leveraged an annual output value of up to 340 million yuan, making this small village with a population of less than 3,000 into the country's leading village of 100 million yuan.

If it is said that the bamboo sea of 10,000 mu, which accounts for nearly 80% of the total land area, is a "gold mine" given to Zijing Village by God; then the local people have found the "key" to open the gold mine with their hard work and wisdom.

In the early days, Zijing Village did not actually produce bamboo flutes, but "nature's porters", supplying the raw materials of bitter bamboo for the Shanghai National Musical Instrument Factory.

The villagers gradually discovered that the high-quality bitter bamboo can be sold as a bamboo material for a maximum of four yuan a piece; but if it is processed into a bamboo flute, the value is as low as ten times, and high-end products can even be sold for hundreds of thousands.

So everyone flocked to the Shanghai National Musical Instrument Factory and the joint factory of Zijing Village to learn core skills from experienced flute makers. With the accumulated skills, the one-stop bamboo flute industry from production to processing has become a golden sign that illuminates Bauhinia Village.

The flute and flute players favor Zijing Village because the craftsmen here can meet their needs. What kind of timbre can a bamboo flute play, and what kind of flute sound can a score achieve the most beautiful effect, all can be found in the hands of the flute maker.

The ingenious bamboo flute goes to the world from here, and bamboo flute lovers from all over the world are attracted by the flute-making craftsmanship and bamboo flute culture, and come to Bauhinia.

In Bauhinia Village, distinguishing bitter bamboo, making a bamboo flute and even playing the bamboo flute are all essential skills. The older generation engaged in the bamboo flute industry has continued their fate with the flute and flute to the next generation. These "second-generation flutes" who grew up with the sound of the flute have made the bamboo flute the most powerful cultural output in this land through the trendy expressions.

The natural landscape of green mountains and beautiful waters and the humanistic essence of bamboo flute are further integrated. Every year, there will be a series of unique activities, attracting visitors from all over the world, and injecting vitality into this remote village.

For example, in the Shanghuangmiao Reservoir surrounded by green trees and flowing blue waves, bamboo flute players came by bamboo rafts, bringing a lively "water concert" to Zijing Village; Flute summer camp, learn bamboo flute making and exchange playing skills.

The Sanskrit sound came from the temple on the top of Shiyu Mountain in the distance. A Bauhinia Village surrounded by ancient meaning and bamboo sea is no exaggeration to say that it is the best place to stay for the sound of the quiet flute.