Pic story: Family dedicated to traditional papermaking craft

Tantou Town is located in southwest of Hunan Province, where bamboos grow in mountains. An ancient handmade papermaking skill has been inherited in Tantou since the Sui Dynasty (581-618), which made Tantou once a renowned papermaking center in central and south China. Since 2015, Li Qiugui, 35, has been committed to inheriting the ancient craft of handmade paper from his father Li Zhijun with the papermaking techniques such as bamboo cutting, soaking, crushing, squeezing and drying. Li Qiugui wishes that he and his father could promote their own workshop to a papermaking research institute known nationwide. 

Li Qiugui crushes bamboo mixtures at his workshop in Tantou Township of Longhui County in Shaoyang City, central China's Hunan Province, June 25, 2019. 

Li Qiugui prepares to dry wet paper sheets at his workshop in Tantou Township of Longhui County in Shaoyang City, central China's Hunan Province, June 25, 2019. 

Li Qiugui selects bamboo materials after soaking at Taolin Village of Tantou Township in Longhui County, central China's Hunan Province, June 25, 2019. 

430,000 Beijing drivers wait for new-energy car plates Chinese, Italian police conduct joint patrol in Shanghai, Guangzhou