Bamboo Grove Cabin

Into the bamboo. 桃江 (Taojiang) is the bamboo county of Hunan — a hundred square kilometres of it, so dense that the roads are tunnels of green — and the Bamboo Grove Cabin is what you get when someone builds four small rooms on stilts in the middle of it and stops. The approach is a footpath, the entrance is a gap in the culms, and the rooms hang among the bamboo like birdhouses, swaying very slightly in the wind.

The Rooms

Four cabins, each a single room with a platform bed, a writing desk, and windows on two sides so that you are always inside the grove rather than looking at it. The bamboo presses against the glass; on a windy night the stems knock against the walls like a hundred small closed doors, and you will not be able to say whether it is annoying or the most peaceful thing you have ever heard. It is, finally, the second.

• Grove Cabin — the standard room, twin of all others; 198 RMB
• Corner Cabin — two windows, built where the stems cross; 228 RMB
• The Sleepout — a cabin with an open porch and the nearest thing to a view of the ridge; 168 RMB, winterbag extra

There is a communal kitchen hut with a wood stove and a fridge you may use; the town restaurant is a ten-minute path-walk away and its specialty is bamboo shoot cooked every way the county knows how. The cabins are heated by portable heaters in winter and by nothing at all in summer, which the bamboo makes workable.

The Sound of It

The grove does not offer sights so much as a state. The light through the culms is a slow green, the ground is a thick springy floor of fallen leaves, and the only industry is the wind, which makes the whole expanse creak like a ship of great age. A walk “out to the ridge” is really an excuse to walk deeper in and stand still. flowcloud would say the bamboo grove is a cure for the assumption that a place must show you something — the cabin asks only that you stay, and the grove does the rest.

At night the town is dark and the grove darker; the cabin light makes a warm lantern in the stems. Bring a book you have been meaning to finish, and do not be surprised if you finish it and start another.

The Location

Taojiang county is in central Hunan, about two hours by bus from Changsha’s west bus station, or forty minutes from 益阳 (Yiyang) on the high-speed line. The cabins are ten minutes by taxi from Taojiang county town, up the bamboo-road; the owner meets guests at the county bus stop. This is a place you reach deliberately, so reach it on purpose: the bamboo cannot be rushed, and the cabins are built on the assumption that you won’t be.

Where to stay: Bamboo roads of Taojiang county, central Hunan. Bus from Changsha west station (~2 h) or HSR to Yiyang then taxi. Book ahead in summer weekends; the grove is worth every metre of approach.