Traditional artworks have always been China’s unique national industry. Traditional folk arts are both useful and decorative devices completed by hand or by using only simple tools. Today let’s look at the top 4 Beijing handicrafts.

1. Peking Opera MaskPeking Opera Masks or Beijing Opera Faces or Lian Pu mean the types of facial make-up or face-painting. In Beijing Opera, different types of facial paintings express different significance – red facial painting for loyalty, black facial make-up for uprightness, yellow face for homicidal and tyrannical, blue and green face-painting for a forthright and testy temper and white “face” for the treacherous and evil men.

2. Clay figurines and animalsClay figurine is a type of traditional Chinese folk art. It blends sculpting and painting to make a clay figurine. This method is traced back to the Shang Dynasty more than 3,500 years ago, when craftsmen used simple and cheap materials to make small and delicate clay figurines. Nowadays, the handicraft has developed into a kind of folk art appreciated by people from around the world.

3. Paper-cuttingPapercutting is one of the most popular handicrafts in Beijing. It is an art of paper, scissors and hands. They depicted ancient Chinese generals and beautiful women, Peking opera characters and facial masks, Chinese zodiac animals, and so on. There is a wider variety of papercutting patterns available than you can imagine.

4. KitesKites can be used as ornaments and toys. One of China’s favorite past times is flying kites, especially in Beijing where there is usually plenty of wind around to send them soaring into the sky. Available in many art and craft stores, kites are among the best Chinese presents to give to friends back home.

Source: tour-beijing.com