Yang Luoshu carves on a wood board in his workshop in Yangjiabu Village of Hanting District in Weifang, east China's Shandong Province, Jan. 20, 2020. Yang Luoshu, 94, is a representative inheritor of Yangjiabu woodblock New Year paintings. (Photo/Liu Jing)

The period ahead of the Spring Festival is the busiest time of the year for Yangjiabu New Year paintings artists in Weifang City, east China’s Shandong Province.

As a folk handicraft, New Year paintings convey people's expectations of the coming new year.

Traditionally, as each Chinese New Year arrives, many families replace their New Year pictures in order to “say goodbye to the past and welcome the future”.

Yangjiabu New Year paintings have more than 600 years of history, and represent one of the three major woodblock New Year painting styles in China.

In 2006, Yangjiabu New Year paintings were listed as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritages by China's State Council.