Provincial intangible cultural heritage in China's Anhui: brick making technique

A worker polishes a brick at a brick making factory in Maolin town of Jingxian county, east China's Anhui Province, Aug. 15, 2019. The brick with natural patterns, peculiar to the town of Maolin, is a kind of decorative material for ancient building, mainly used on door, wall and window. Fired with two different mud, the brick shows two different colors with delicate texture. During the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, such brick was widely used on local residential architectures. However, the brick making techniques were once almost lost due to its complicated craftsmanship and high making cost. In 1990s, local people regained the brick making techniques and gradually recovered its production. The making of the brick consists mostly of 12 stages of production including mud collection, unfired brick making, burning, and polishing. In 2014, the brick making technique was listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage. (Xinhua/Liu Junxi)