Dream weavers' misty mountain retreat

Monetary considerations

Not all the students, however, see weaving as just an escape from everyday routine.

Li Guangyao, 30, runs a coffee shop in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, and studied graphic design in college. He believes weaving and graphic design use different materials and tools, but share a similar aesthetic logic.

"Of course I enjoy the learning process. It makes me happy. But if I can make money from it when I return home, I'll be even happier," Li said with a smile.

During the course, he filled a notebook with information and sketches of what he had learned. The other students dubbed him the group's unofficial note taker.

Li also has a design studio, where handwoven fabrics can be incorporated into interior design projects by his team.

Weave Wave's Yi cautioned that combining personal interests with work doesn't mean escaping the demands of a real job.

"Freedom also means having to be more disciplined. It is fine to take a break occasionally when you are not feeling up to it. But if you want to do something well, you still have to stick with it over the long term," she said.

"Even when you move to the mountains, the worries don't disappear. But there are fewer outside distractions," she said with a laugh. "If my studio were in a big city, I'd probably find it hard to resist raising the course fees."

Ye Zhijie graduated from college earlier this year.

Before heading to Fuzhou in Fujian province to start a new job, she went to Zhouguan with her mother Zhi Limin. The two made the hourlong round trip by car and carved together whenever they could.

Ye said she wanted to learn wood carving to mark the end of her student years.

"I'm about to move to another city for work. This is one of my last chances to enjoy myself before starting a new chapter. I wanted to do something meaningful," she said.