Beijing Hotels: Nearby Calabash Carving Shop

BoGu YiYuan is the largest antique city in west Beijing. And in the market, I found a Calabash carving shop, with its owner a prizer winner of top designing contest in China.

First, let me introduce the multi-functional plant,  calabash (hulu).  In the old days, doctors believed hulu is a traditional Chinese medicine cure. Dried calabash is also used as containers of liquids, often liquors or medicine. Nowadays, hulu becomes a decoration item. Artists could draw your whatever patterns you want on the hulu, even your own photo.

Ju De Tang is such a calabash-carving studio, and its owner, Guo Jude, is a second winner of 4th China Gift Designing Contest. After the success, Mr Guo's life is getting busier. He is invited to  draw and curve 60 imagines of ambassadors and leaders from some middle-east nations on  large bottle gourd. Beijing university and government Shijingshan district asked him to give lectures. He now has 10 students, whom he selected to pass down his skill.

You would find a large amount of bottle gourds in different sizes. Mr Guo  charged RMB 50 for a small gourd-carving, But for the large one, because it is hard to find large gourd and it needs more time to increase resemblance, it costs over thousand.