Xuan paper lifted from the vat, New Year prints pulled from pear wood blocks, rubbings taken off carved stone.
This is the smallest group here, and the reason is worth stating. Brush calligraphy classes for visitors were checked in nine cities, among them Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Nanjing, and every lead ran back to a booking site or a short video rather than to a place. Where an official listing, a venue’s own site or a bylined report could not put a bookable class at an address, the entry was dropped rather than filled in. Searching from home turns up the same booking sites, so it is worth knowing what is behind them.
8 of them, grouped by region. The last column carries the four things that decide whether the day works: what language it is taught in, what you come away with, how it is booked, and the price where a venue publishes one. Or see all five crafts.
North China (华北)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Yangliuqing New Year Print Hall (An Family Shrine) (杨柳青年画馆（安氏祠堂）)West of the Shi family courtyard in Yangliuqing old town, showing the whole run of a woodblock New Year print: drawing, cutting, printing, painting and mounting. For a fee you pull your own print of a plump baby or a door god, and take it home once it dries. The city lists the hall as a graded site, open year round.On the national intangible heritage list | Tianjin | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
East China (华东)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| China Xuan Paper Culture Park (中国宣纸文化园（中国宣纸博物馆）)A graded scenic park with the Xuan paper museum and a working workshop where the old steps run in front of you. In the hands-on area you lift a layer of wet pulp from the vat on a bamboo screen, and once it drains you have a small sheet of your own. The city culture bureau lists the paper-lifting alongside the making of the giant sheets, with entry at sixty yuan.On the national intangible heritage list | Xuancheng, Anhui | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
| Taohuawu Woodblock New Year Print Museum (桃花坞木刻年画博物馆)In the Pu Yuan garden from the Republican period, showing how the Taohuawu blocks are cut and registered colour by colour. The city education bureau’s spring programme has visitors taking a rubbing of a harmony-themed print after a guided tour, in the Taohuawu art gallery nearby, and carrying it home the same day.On the national intangible heritage list | Suzhou, Jiangsu | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
| Yin Studio (Calligraphy Class), Shanghai (Yin Studio)A studio working with foreign residents in the city. Its own site says the teachers are certified and work in Chinese, English and Japanese, in small brush calligraphy and ink painting classes. You start from how the brush is held and the basic strokes, and finish one character study on Xuan paper to take away. | Shanghai | Taught in English Home the same day Book on their own site |
Central China (华中)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Jizhong Zhuxian Town Woodblock Print Workshop (继中朱仙镇木版年画社)On the print street in Zhuxian town, a workshop run by Zhang Jizhong, a national-level heritage holder, cutting pear-wood blocks and printing colour by colour. You pull your own door god or kitchen god print from a traditional block and take it away once the ink is dry. Door gods, wealth gods and opera scenes are the local subjects.On the national intangible heritage list | Kaifeng, Henan | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
South China (华南)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Feng Family Foshan Woodblock New Year Print Studio (冯氏世家佛山木版年画艺术展示馆)On Pujun South Road in the old quarter, the surviving hand workshop for Foshan prints. The national heritage service reports that Feng Bingtang held the national listing here; he has since died, and his family and a city-listed holder carry it on. You watch the block registration and the face painting, then do the red filling yourself and leave with a kung fu door god.On the national intangible heritage list | Foshan, Guangdong | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
Southwest China (西南)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Mianzhu New Year Print Village (中国绵竹年画村)A graded scenic village with painted houses and print workshops down both sides of the lanes. The city government reports that in workshops such as the Liuyun Pavilion at Chen Xingcai’s former home, a heritage holder teaches block printing and the filling in of colour, and you make a child-with-fish print to take home.On the national intangible heritage list | Deyang, Sichuan | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
Northwest China (西北)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Xi’an Beilin Museum (Forest of Steles) (西安碑林博物馆)In the museum’s teaching area, staff set you up to copy from the stele classics in the collection, the Cao Quan and Jiucheng Palace among them, in ink on a fan or on Xuan paper, and to take a rubbing from a carved stone. Both come home with you. The provincial culture department’s calligraphy itinerary lists the rubbing and the copying as standing activities here. | Xi’an, Shaanxi | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
Getting Into a Workshop
Most of these teach in Chinese and take bookings by phone or on WeChat, which is the part that stops people from abroad. Tell our local team which craft and which week, and they will find out what is running, make the call and say what you will come away with.