Hawker In Dengfeng With Handcart Loaded With Handmade Baskets And Brushes.

Many bamboo items such as bamboo hats, bamboo brushes, and bamboo baskets, are made in the homes of Chinese people, then sold to the merchants who deal in these types of items. Most of the bamboo baskets and containers on the hardcart of a hawker who passed us while we were waiting for a taxi, would have been made at homes. The hawker's handcart was well loaded so it was unknown whether he was going to his usual site for selling his goods, or whether he had given up for the day and was returning home.

On one visit to China we went to a countryside town named Tongmu, where a great many bamboo coolie hats were made by families in their homes. The thin shoots of bamboo were bought in the markets, then taken home to be split into thin strips which would be woven by hand into the coolie hats, that many Chinese people in the countryside wear, particularly when working in the fields. We often saw a woman sitting on the pavement outside her home skillfully weaving a coolie hat. In one area of the town there were hundreds of coolie hats, varnished and decorated, laid out in the sun to dry.

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Handmade Bamboo Baskets On Handcart Of Hawker In Dengfeng.