Near the Forbidden City, there is a shop, Mountain Gift, selling bamboo art from deep mountains.

Coming from XianNing, a mountainous city in HuBei Province where bamboo abounds, Mountain Gifts offers a large selection of bamboo books and sculptures.

The crafters of the shop use the ancient way to make bamboo books - carving on the narrow bamboo strips. The themes include Dream of Red Mansion, legendary tales of Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, Chairman Mao's snow poem, and Sun Tzu's Art of War. Each piece sells around RMB 300.

In the bamboo sculpture section, I was enthralled by the sculpture "Zhu Lin Qi Xian" - the seven famous literati of ideals and integrity of Jin Dynasty. The carving works were excellent, as you can see clearly the smallest details. Ms. Zhang, the owner, says a good bamboo sculpture work doesn't come easy. Qualified bamboo is hard to find and the shape of bamboo roots will also largely affect the sculpture making. The artwork is priced at about RMB 2,000.

I visiteda shop selling folk handicraft, Folk Craft Gift near the Forbidden City. And I was surprised to find many foreign visitors in the shop during my visit.

On the shop's shelves rest a large array of baubles: bamboo books, opera masks, bronze vessels, Shao Lin swords, wood sculptures, earthen wares, etc. The prices are comparatively low.

I picked up a bamboo book with a poem of Li Bai, the most renowned poet in Tang Dynasty. In the poem, he expressed his admiration for China's mother river - the Yellow river. Another set of four pieces of bamboo paintings depicts ‘the four beauties of ancient China'. Each of them sells around RMB 100. One small bronze mask with bulgy eyes caught me in curiosity. The owner told me that original mask excavated in western China a couple of years ago sparked a debate on the origin of Chinese culture. It is priced at RMB 200. Other interesting objects include Pi Xiu, ‘one of the nine sons of dragon', which eats only gold and silver. It costs about RMB 250.

The owner, Mr. Zhou, studied and worked in Japan for several years, is fluent with Japanese.

Originated from 4000 years ago, the Chinese folk art - dough figurine, or Mian Ren in Chinese, is made of purified wheat flour, glutinous rice flour, bee honey, and glycerin.

Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer dough figurine artists in Beijing. So I was very exciting to find so many cute and exquisite dough figurines on the second floor of Baigong Handicrafts Museum.

There is large selection of dough figurines in the shop. Each figure, setting foot on a small wooden pedestal, is kept in a glass box.

I was enthralled by the figurine featuring two kids in ancient clothes watching cricket fighting. It is sold at RMB 260. Another one I like best was the God of Longevity. With long, white beard and brows, the smiling God wears a yellow robe. He holds a big peach in his left hand, and a long crutch in right. It cost 180 yuan.

The elderly female shop assistant told me that most of these handicrafts are made by Mr. You, a dough figurine master. His works have a prominent feature that every small figure has a talking, vivid facial expression. She also noted that a dough figurine should be kept from sunshine. In this way, the colors of the dough figurines will not fade for at least 20 years.

Paper-cut is a time-honored Chinese folk art. In the past, people used to post red-colored paper-cut works on doors, windows or furniture as decoration, hoping to keep from evils and enjoy happy life.

Nowadays, artisans endow the folk art with more colorful ideas and modern interpretations. Much more complicated designs of paper-cut have been created by a pair of skillful hands, paper and scissors.

I visited the paper-cut shop on the second floor of Baigong Handicraft Museum. Walking into the shop, I was shocked that a thin piece of paper could be turned into such delicate artworks with shapes of landscape, ancient characters, birds and flower...

I like the Chinese Zodiac bookmarks very much. The twelve animals look vividly and lovely. A set costs only RMB 38.

The owner, also a paper-cut master, introduced that most of the items in the shop are under RMB 100. And you can still negotiate with the owner.

Together with jade ware, carved ivory, and cloisonné, lacquer ware is rated as one of "the great four traditional handicraft" in China. Originated 1500 years ago, lacquer, a black or red resinous substance, was used to coat artwork or furniture. Then, on the surface of the layers, attractive patterns were carved by artists.

On my visit to Baigongfang Handicraft Museum in Beijing, I found this Beijing lacquer art shop on the second floor.

Half of their articles are red-colored carved lacquer plates mounted upon a small, black wooden bracket separately. The designs, such as the Great Wall, dragon and phoenix, are very delicate.

I saw other carved lacquer items, like red-colored peony-covered caskets and small sculptures in shapes of elephants and unicorns. But what impressed me most was a wooden pair of lions. Each of them squats on a stone, with mouth widely open. They are so vividly curved as if they will jump down the stone and chase upon you. The twin lions are priced at RMB 460.