There are many interesting traditional things in Beijing, the following will introduce some of them, and you may take them as a souvenir.
There are many interesting traditional things in Beijing, the following will introduce some of them, and you may take them as a souvenir.
Windmill
There is an old legend saying a bird with 10 heads in heaven was depreciated into human's world. Not repenting though, it made destruction anywhere and brought misery to humans. So the king of Zhou ordered his courtier, Jiang Ziya, the most talented person at that time to handle this. Jiang ziya figured out that this bird was mostly afraid of windmill and he made such a thing to repel evil. The bird with 10 heads disappeared then. The citizens learned to do windmill from Jiang Ziya and it became a popular thing In Beijing.
Lamps with Cycling Horses
It is one kind of folk color lamps starting from Song Dynasty. There are two layers in the lamp and beautiful pictures are stick into the inner side. When light on, the inside layer begins to cycle because of heat and it seems from outside that horses and people are walking here and there. In the past, lamps with cycling horses are shown together with dozens of children dancing and sing around to express people's happiness and wishes to the future.
Facial Mask-like Makeup Art
It is first originate from totem in the old times and gradually changed into opera facial make up. In the Tang Dynasty, when performers were dancing and singing, they used to wear a facial mask. Later, they gave up the masks and painted the designs in masks directly into face. A distinguishing feature of this art is that it shows people's character and status according to different colors. For example, red represents loyal and yellow means brutality.
Tiger-head-pillow
Tiger-head-pillow is one kind of folk embroidery. The shape of this pillow is like tigers with different designs, for example, two-heads tigers, tigers with human's face or with fish's tail. In Chinese old saying, tiger is the king of all animals in forests. When babies are 1 years old, their aunts should make tiger-head-pillow for them to bless them safety and peace.
Sugar Figures
Making sugar figures is an old profession in Beijing. Sugar figure makers went from street to street with shoulder poles, carrying a cupboard on each side. One of the cupboards held charcoal and was the sugar figure makers' seat. The other one carried tools, a charcoal stove with a cuprum spoon full of maltose in the centre. On top of it were models of different kinds of sugar figures on straws. These, attracted lots of kids who followed the sugar figure maker around.
Making Art from Dough
According to a Chinese fairy tale, humans were created out of clay by a goddess.
In the hands of the folk artists, this myth is repeated over and over as the otherwise worthless clay is molded into fascinating sculptures via kneading, basking, coloring and baking. They look like glittering, translucent flying fairies, or beauties with shining kites, but these handicrafts are not made from precious jade, ivory or coral. They are made from an edible material- common dough.