In the diverse range of Guangzhou's handicrafts, the quintessential ones are the renowned "Three Carvings, One Enamel, and One Embroidery": crystal-clear jade sculptures, elegant and exquisite ivory sculptures, and antique-flavored wooden sculptures, as well as brilliant Guangzhou Enamel and colorful Guangzhou Embroidery. Each handicraft represents a piece of history and is an object of exquisite workmanship. Moreover, Guangzhou's handicraft gifts are an integration of modernity and tradition, featuring high technological and aesthetic standards.

(In no particular order)

Guangzhou Enamel          Guangzhou Arts & Handicrafts Industry Association

Reason for Recommendation: Guangzhou Enamel has consistently been a prized object eagerly sought after by museums in China and abroad.

Guangzhou Enamel refers to the art of colored ceramic glaze in the Guangzhou region and is also known as "Guangzhou Golden Colored Enamel. With a history spanning more than three centuries, Guangzhou Enamel was once a major export commodity in the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911). Kings of France, Louis XIV and Louis XV, both sent envoys to Guangzhou to place orders for Guangzhou Enamel. Guangzhou Enamel has consistently been a prized object eagerly sought after by museums in China and abroad. It applies China's brocade technique and uses various colors and gold and silver water to knit, brush, knit and fill in patterns, which look like numerous gold and silver silk threads, on jades.

Legend of Five Rams Imitation Bone Sculpture          Guangzhou Hengcheng Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd.

Reason for Recommendation: Nothing recaptures The Legend of Five Rams better than the bone sculpture.

In The Legend of Five Rams, the five rams represents the combination the "Five" in the Yin and Yang theory and the concept of the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) used in ancient Chinese cosmology and the Yang (which has the same pronunciation as the Chinese character for "ram"); therefore, in The Legend of Five Rams, the celestial beings were riding rams rather than other animals such as deer and horses, and five rather than four or six rams were involved. This sculpture uses ox bone powder in lieu of ivory and has been made through a series of processes, including molding, carving, grinding, and assembling. The five rams are vivid images with very high artistic and aesthetic value.

Jade Sculpture of Five Rams          Guangzhou Hengcheng Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd.

Reason for Recommendation: The clean and clear jade sculpture of five rams is a dignified and auspicious object of art.

This jade sculpture is carved with one of China's top four kinds of jade ?C the high-quality Lantian Jade. In China, jade is highly prized and jade objects are considered to be auspicious and effective in relieving convulsion and expelling evil spirits. Rams are auspicious animals in Chinese tradition, as the ancient Chinese character for "ram" is the same as the character for "auspicious", evidenced by inscriptions on many ancient Chinese bronze vessels. Thus the Jade Sculpture of Five Rams represents double auspiciousness and is highly valuable.

Fresh Sunshine over Yuexiu (Bone Sculpture)          Guangzhou Huacheng Boya Handicraft Factory

Reason for Recommendation: An ivory sculpture that recaptures the captivating landscape of Yuexiu

This sculpture is made using landscape caring and ivory carving techniques to recapture the "Fresh Sunshine over Yuexiu", one of the new top eight sights of Guangzhou. The sculpture depicts a simplistic five-storey building, the elegant Sculpture of Five Rams, the emerald Nanxiu Lake and Beixiu Lake, blooming straight kapok trees, poplars and willows swaying in wind, lush ancient banyan trees, and towering sugar palm trees, all of which combine to present a perfect picture.

Guangzhou Embroidery          Guangzhou Arts & Handicrafts Industry Association

Reason for Recommendation: Nothing depicts Lingnan litchi better than Guangzhou Embroidery with its unique coloring and needling methods.

Guangzhou Embroidery ranks among China's top four schools of embroidery, along with Suzhou Embroidery, Hunan Embroidery, and Sichuan Embroidery, Guangzhou Embroidery includes floss embroidery, bead embroidery, machine embroidery, and gold thread embroidery, each featuring a different artistic style. Litchi fruits in Guangzhou Embroidery are stitched by using traditional needling methods, such as "bottoming", "knotting", "spreading" and "inserting" alternately, and therefore are full, highly realistic, and deep textured.

Guangdong Opera Classical Puppets          Guangzhou Zhonghua Arts Decoration Industry Co., Ltd.

Reason for Recommendation: The puppets represent the cream of Guangzhou Embroidery and Guangdong Opera.

Guangdong Opera is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. Each role in Guangdong Opera is dressed up in a different costume, which is typically made of Guangzhou Embroidery. These elaborate puppets are made of polyester materials by carving and painting and dressed in silk clothes made with machine and manual embroidery techniques. Accessories on the puppets are manually forged with metals and inlaid with diamonds, gems, and pearls.

Fragrant Wooden Balls          Guangzhou Baoxiang Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd.

Reason for Recommendation: The hollowing-out technique for ivory balls is "transplanted" to fragrant wooden balls, making the balls objects of amazing ingenuity and exquisite workmanship.

A fragrant wooden ball is made from a single piece of wood using Guangzhou's unique ivory ball hollowing-out technique. The wood is carved into an exquisite bright ball which contains layers upon layers of hollowed-out motifs and rotates freely. Each ball is a work of art featuring high ingenuity a significant aesthetic value. In 2006, hollowed-out fragrant wooden balls made by Li Bincheng were presented to a gift of Guangzhou people to the King of Sweden, who had arrived in Guangzhou with the ship Götheborg. The King was greatly delighted with the gift.

Miniature Ivory Sculptures          Guangzhou Daxin Ivory Carving Factory

Reason for Recommendation: Guangzhou Ivory Carving is on China's first list of national intangible cultural heritage items.

Since ancient times, ivory sculptures have among a favorite lucky charm among Chinese people. Shiny, smooth and moist, they are valuable objects of work, exuding elegance, sophistication, steadiness and intelligence. Guangzhou Ivory Sculptures come in a various forms, notably hollowed-out ivory balls, boats, figures, and miniature carved books and pictures. Guangzhou Ivory Carving is on China's first list of national intangible cultural heritage items.

Ivory-carved miniature snuff bottles became popular in Europe in the early 17th century and were later brought into China. During the reign of Emperor Dao Guang of the Qing Dynasty, the workshop in the Hall of Moral Cultivation in the Forbidden City made a special snuff bottle whose lid contained a tiny spoon for scooping up tobacco powder. An ivory-carved snuff bottle can be a popular vessel or an object to show off wealth.

Olive Sculptures   Guangzhou Arts & Crafts Corporation

Reason for Recommendation: Carrying forward the millennium-old tradition of dragon boat racing and highlighting the olive carving technique.

Since ancient times, black olives have been growing in profusion in Guangzhou's Zengcheng area. The fruits of the black olives have large cores with small kernels, making them great materials for carving, hence the ingenious folk craft of olive carving in Guangzhou. Olive sculptures are typical of Lingnan culture, featuring elaborate and elegant designs and smooth lines and combing dynamism with quiescence. Dragon boat race, the largest event during the Dragon Boat Festival, has been around in Guangzhou for more than a thousand years, becoming a motif for olive carving.

Xiguan Customs Bronze Sculptures          Tiancheng Arts & Crafts Store

Reason for Recommendation: Vivid bronze sculptures recapturing the familiar flavor of life at Xiguan.

A bronze sculpture is made through a technical process involving clay sculpturing, molding, and specialized forging. Xiguan Customs Bronze Sculptures were popular at Xiguan in the 1930s/40s. Vendors called them "Ji Gong Lan" to attract customers.