Shadow carving is a kind of art of carving patterns on slates with chisels.

The craft was created more than 300 years ago in Hui'an county, Southeast China's Fujian province and is based on stone carving.

What is special about shadow carving is that the majority of people who practice the art are women from Hui'an. The women of Hui'an are renowned for being very hard working, and a piece of shadow carving often takes a great deal of time and energy, requiring millions of chisels.

A female artisan from Hui'an county, Fujian province practices shadow carving. [Photo/fjsen.com]