Crewel needles made with traditional techniques in Shanxi

Craftsmen Li Shuanglu (left) and Wu Laishun (right) try to beat a piece of steel bar flat with a hammer in making crewel needles in Dayang township of Zezhou county, North China's Shanxi province, Sept 24, 2015. Pei Xiangnan, 66, is the eighth successor of the Dayang handmade crewel needles, which was listed as a provincial intangible culture heritage in 2006. Despite as an inheritor, Pei is actually a rural doctor and usually has no time to make needles. He has to utilize his weekends or holiday time to perform his craftsmanship for visiting tourists. The making of crewel needles needs 72 steps and there are only less than 10 people able to make crewel needles by hand in the town. To avoid extinction of the craftsmanship, Dayang township tries a protective development in which hand-making of crewel needles is promoted as a special tourism project. [Photo/Xinhua]