Many visitors to Beijing cannot help being enchanted with Shichahai in Xicheng District, given its heady mix of past and present, East and West.

Yet few people know that the district is rich not only in hutongs and siheyuans (courtyard houses), but also in intangible treasures that include more than 50 folk art collectors and 157 handicrafts households.

Of the latter, 15 households have been officially allowed to open their family galleries. Among them is Bai Dacheng's studio, one of the first three to be identified in 2004.

Bai's home is filled with big cupboards that hold his collections and he himself has lost track of the different kinds of handicrafts in there. But one big part comprises old toys, or "wanyir" in Beijing dialect.

He also has many dough sculptures (miansu), paper-cutting silhouettes (jianying) and clay facial models used in Peking Opera (lianpu) and knows all about their origin and genre.

His selections are not geographically limited and include clay figurines (mianren) and shadow play characters (piying) from both North and South China.

Most of Bai's exhibits show him to be a Peking Opera fan. Among his other notable collections is the precious boccaro (zisha) teapots, whose surface is covered with enamel paintings of opera scenes.

There are also several porcelain boards, vases and brush pots of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and early 20th century. In accordance with a characteristic feature of that period, they are covered in underglazed, opera-theme drawings.

(China Daily February 28, 2006)