Abstract: The differences of surface properties and chemical constitution of bamboo closed to outer skin and inner skin were investigated by analyzing the color, roughness, gloss and ATR-FTIR. The analysis results showed that there were significant differences between bamboo closed to outer skin and inner skin in L^*, a^* and b^* coordinate. And the value of L^* of bamboo closed to outer skin was higher than that of bamboo closed to inner skin, but the value of a^* and b^* obtained the opposite results. The results of roughness and gloss indicated that bamboo closed to inner skin was superior to bamboo closed to outer skin. ATR-FTIR revealed that the content of cellulose and lignin of bamboo closed to outer skin were higher compared with that of bamboo closed to inner skin. However, both of the content of hemicellulose were almost the same and bamboo closed to inner skin contained a little higher.