Craftsman gets award restoring murals

When Li Yunhe traveled from his hometown in Shandong province to visit his uncle who worked with the restoration team of Dunhuang's Mogao Grottoes in 1956, he was offered a job that very few people in China had done before.

During the visit, he met Chang Shuhong, who later became the first director of the Dunhuang Academy, and Chang persuaded the young man to stay and join his team as a fresco art restorer.

From then on, Li, who always wears blue overalls, started his daily routine getting in and out of the caves with a torch in his hand and a toolbox strapped to his back, which contains injectors, rubber suction tubes and other necessary items to protect the murals. His job responsibilities include "curing" typical mural diseases such as flaking, detachment and blisters.