Fruit-pit carver helps people with disabilities

SHENYANG - Pushing her way off a crowded bus, Yan Ming, 60, strolls down the road toward a small workshop with the help of a crutch and warmly greets her workmates as she enters.

She takes a seat, puts on her reading glasses and plays with her "dental drill" (an electric carving tool) and gravers in the light of a desk lamp, carving an ear of corn out of a single olive stone.

Yan has spent the past three years as an apprentice learning the intricate Chinese folk art of fruit-pit carving, superb craftsmanship that turns fruit pits into exquisite handicrafts.