This photo taken on Dec. 17, 2024 shows a picture for designing ivory carving artwork displayed at the studio of Li Chunke in Beijing, capital of China. Ivory Carving, an ancient craft in China, was famous for its elegance due to its pure white material -- ivory. The earliest ivory carving artwork was found in a cultural relic in China during the Neolithic Age, dating back to 7,000 years ago. Beijing Ivory Carving, featuring elegant and luxuriant styles inherited from the imperial art, goes through several main procedures before completion such as designing, hewing, shoveling, face shaping and grinding.

　　China has been intensifying its efforts in wildlife protection over the years. On Dec. 30, 2016, China declared that it would enforce a complete end of its domestic ivory trade within a year. Starting from Dec. 31 of 2017, processing or selling ivory and its products has been officially banned in China. Nowadays, carvers use mammoth tusks or antlers as substitutes.

　　Li Chunke, born in 1949 in Beijing, a national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor of ivory carving, started to learn the art since 15 years old. Over the sixty years of his career, Li has formed a uniquely simple and crisp style in his carving. He emphasizes on using the most simple lines and skills to express the theme of the artwork, also stressing on the traditional Chinese aesthetics. Many of his works have won important prizes in the art, with some be regarded as art treasures in China.