Beijing’s pollution clean-up threatens age-old craft fit for royalty
Roof tile factories are being shut down because they use coal-fired kilns – which artisans say are essential to the process
Beijing’s campaign to root out polluting factories is threatening an age-old industry that used to make bright yellow glazed tiles for royalty.
Most of the workshops that make the coloured tiles – known as liuliwa – have been ordered to shut down because their traditional process uses coal-fired kilns that do not meet environmental standards, Beijing Youth Daily reported.
The Mongolian rulers of the Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368) set up the first of the workshops in Beijing’s western Mentougou district and it became a centre for making the tiles, the report said. Now there are none left there, and few survive elsewhere in the city.
But for hundreds of years, craftsmen in the district produced roof tiles that could only be used on imperial buildings or the mansions of aristocracy or officials.
They were glazed in yellow, green, blue and black, depending on who they were for – the yellow tiles with dragons could only be used for royalty.