Birdcage village carries on old craft, wins bucks

The village of Da'ou in Qingdao, Shandong province, is not your ordinary village. At the entrance to the village, hung from almost every door, adorning every billboard and streetlight there is but one thing－birdcages.

Listed as a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage item in 2009, the skill of birdcage-making has been passed down from one generation to another among local villagers in Da'ou, in the city's Jimo district, for more than 500 years.

Today, the skill has provided the livelihoods of more than 320 of the 460 households in the village. And the others are mostly involved in related businesses even if they do not make birdcages themselves.