The first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) will begin in Beijing on March 5. Song Shuixian, a horsetail embroidery artist from Sandu Shui autonomous county, southwest China's Guizhou province, is one of the 72 deputies from the province who will be at the big meeting.

Song Shuixian, one of the deputies to the 13th National People's Congress from Guizhou province, displays the technique of horsetail embroidery. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Song started to learn the horsetail embroidery technique from her mother when she was a child. Ever since, she has decided to devote herself to keeping the intangible cultural heritage alive.

She opened the first horsetail embroidery craft store in the county in 2006, and later founded her own company in 2012 to help promote horsetail embroidery in her hometown.

Horsetail embroidery is a traditional embroidery style that uses horse hairs and silk thread as the raw materials for the handicraft. The skill of weaving horse hair into thread and sewing traditional patterns has been passed down by Shui women for generations.

The art was listed as one of China's first intangible cultural heritages in 2006.