Daling Village, Shunfeng Town (formerly Shuangxi Town), Linwu County, Chenzhou City, is famous for its rush matting, which is made from Chinese alpine rush. Boasting a history of more than 600 years, it was once a tribute to the imperial court in the Qing Dynasty.

In 1954, it was hailed as “unique handicraft in the world” at the handicraft exhibition in Leipzig, Germany. The extremely particular processing technique can be divided into more than ten processes, including grass picking, grass boiling, grass drying, etc. The grass turns into grain yellow after drying. Then, it still needs to be hammered with wooden hammers, and scraped with knifes until it turns flat and smooth. A rush mat of 1.8 meters needs about 8,000 grasses, taking more than half a month for artists to weave.

Hu Xiaoqin, a villager in Daling Village, as an inheritor of rush matting, had been to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe in November, 1987 to teach the matting weaving technique for five years. Hu established Xiangfei Weaving Handicraft Co., Ltd. in 2016, and trained more than 200 women in urban and rural areas to master the skill of rush matting weaving. In this way can the rush matting weaving skills be inherited and carried forward.