It is not the intricate carving or the shinny gloss of Gao Baoan's 28.8 meter long image that catches the eye. While the ornate figures and miraculous representation of the famed 12th century work Qingming Shanghe Tu are undoubtedly striking, more impressive is the fact that the Shanxi province resident created the entire piece of art using around 6,000 discarded aluminum cans.

The creation has received a great deal of attention from Chinese media with Baidu, the country's leading search engine, showing more than 5,000 articles on Gao's work and a related post on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, receiving more than 30,000 likes.

One section of Shanxi resident Gao Baoan's artwork is focused upon. His work emulates the famed painting Qingming Shanghe Tu. The work is on display in Gao's native province and visitors are able to witness the full scale of the 28-meter-long image. The work was made using more than 6,000 waste cans and took the Linfen resident artist more than two and a half years to complete. [Photo/official Sina Weibo account of CCTV News]

The work has been a long time in the making and Gao estimates having spent two and a half years on the project. Firstly, Gao gathered the necessary number of cans before gradually assembling them into his original masterpiece.

"This work of art took 26 different steps. The most difficult part is deciding what size pieces to use in specific places because at the beginning it is often difficult to tell. If I make a mistake of 0.3 millimeters it will not look realistic," Gao said.

"I have been interested in using cans to make art for years and this huge work is my first real try. It is interesting to use waste to make beautiful handicraft works," the 52-year-old man added.

Gao hopes that the example of his efforts will encourage others to look to recycled objects as a chance to enrich their own lives. It is certainly no exaggeration to state that to this pioneering Shanxi native, trash really is something to be treasured.