Dancers pose for a group photo. [Photo/WeChat account: wxbhly]

Binhu district in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province is renowned for being home to a wide variety of intangible cultural heritage items.

Among the district's 27 cultural heritage items is a performance by fisherwomen who tie lanterns to their waist and whirl oars to the beat of gongs and drums. In the past, this performance was done almost exclusively by men.

Wuxi pingqu, which originated during the Kangxi Era (1662-1722) in the Qing Dynasty, is a form of musical storytelling in the Wuxi dialect. The art form has a profound influence on Wuxi Opera.

The horse lantern dance is another intangible cultural heritage item that is particularly popular in the Mashan sub-district. According to a book written in the Guangxu Era (1875-1908) of the Qing Dynasty, children at that time made cloth horse lanterns and adorned them with candles on the third day of the first lunar month every year.

Another famous heritage item is Wuxi embroidery, which had won 50 prizes at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, the United States, in 1915.