A page out of history

Thanks to the efforts of craftsman Wang Xingwu, an ancient village is enjoying the fruits of a traditional papermaking boom, Yang Feiyue reports.

Wang Xingwu has an occasional, but long developed habit of collecting wildflowers and grass from the mountains.

He turns them into a special handmade material, which is known as huacao (flower and grass) paper and is mostly decorative, used for wallpaper, lanterns, umbrellas and bookmarks.

It has become a hit among visitors who beat a path to Shiqiao village in the north of Danzhai county, Southwest China's Guizhou province.

They are drawn to the village's profound papermaking history, which stretches back more than 1,000 years, and are eager to try their hand at the craft, which is considered one of the four great inventions of ancient China, on a par with printing, gunpowder and the compass.

It has been years since Wang, who is in his 50s, developed his novel paper stock, with the aim of catering to visitors and promoting the local papermaking tradition.