Fùyáng

Fuyang lies on the Fuchun River, amid hills where bamboo provides the raw material for a long-established papermaking craft. Local makers prepare pulp from young bamboo and form sheets by hand, producing a soft paper valued for writing and printing. The craft is traced to the Southern Song and flourished during the Ming and Qing. Among Fuyang's products was yuanshu paper, made for writing and supplied for official use. Generations of papermakers developed their own methods of preparing pulp and lifting sheets from it, giving Fuchun bamboo paper a reputation beyond the district.