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.