Preserving Culture: Expo showcases many sides of Chinese craftsmanship

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Beauty, simplicity and extravagance. All this can be seen through the works of time-honored Chinese craftwork. And it's on display at show in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong province. CGTN's Tao Yuan takes us on a tour.

Craftsmanship at its best. This expo in eastern China features some of the top purveyors of the country's intangible cultural heritage items.

Bamboo weaving, pottery, tea making.

TAO YUAN JINAN And out of the dazzling displays, something captures my attention - Cloth.

Perhaps with its endless colors, textures, patterns. Or the thousands of years of Chinese aesthetics weaved, dyed, or embroidered into it.

This is grass cloth, weaved from the fibres of a plant called ramie. It's also called summer cloth, for its breathable fabrics.

LI JIANKANG, INHERITOR CHONGQING RONGCHANG GRASS CLOTH "Your hands, eyes, waist and feet need to work in sync with one another."

Li Jiankang is a nationally-designated inheritor of the craft. Proudly clad in a grass cloth shirt, he talks it up with customers while his wife showcases the techniques.

LI JIANKANG, INHERITOR CHONGQING RONGCHANG GRASS CLOTH "It doesn't take much physical effort, but a lot of mental work. You have to be very meticulous, and patient, as the fibres break very easily."

If grass cloth is beauty in simplicity, then this is extravagance at its utmost.

It's Yunjin, or cloud brocade, once only produced for the royal family.

The two-level machine used to make it could well be the king of all looms.

ZHOU SHUANGXI, INHERITOR NANJING YUNJIN BROCADE "The patterns and dimensions are grand, so it needs a huge machine."

Zhou Shuangxi weaves the patterns, while a partner pulls the thread on top.

They say the patterns are "pre-coded" in these knots.

Although I'm baffled at how.

ZHOU SHUANGXI, INHERITOR NANJING YUNJIN BROCADE "If we look at the Chinese language, there are so many sayings which are closely linked to the weaving trade, like 'to add flowers to brocade,' or 'to be meticulous in every strand of thread.' This goes to show that weaving has been very much a part of the Chinese culture."

Sun Dongning is the expo's chief planner.

SUN DONGNING, CHIEF PLANNER 5TH CHINA INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE EXPO "Everything we're seeing here today was at one point the most fashionable item of its time. We are standing in a fluid, ever-changing time and space in our quest for tradition and novelty, familiarity and strangeness in art and culture."

And he hopes to make the intangible culture tangible. TY, CGTN, Jinan.