Guo guides students to visit the village in 2022.[Photo provided by Li An/For China Daily]

Since then, the 61-year-old started his now four-decade bond with the old art and created outstanding artistic works, many of which have been displayed at art institutes at home and abroad. However, this ambitious artist decided that personal accomplishments and milestones were not enough, he wanted to draw more people to this art.

In 2013, Guo chanced upon the mountain village of Huashuwa during a trip, and was amazed by its breathtaking natural beauty. But economically backward, the village had neither tap water, electricity, nor good roads.

The village is only 62 kilometers from Neolithic Yangshao Site in Sanmenxia, Henan, dating back over 5,000 years, which had yielded many pottery artifacts. It is also not far from Ru Kiln and Jun Kiln, both prominent kilns during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Therefore, Guo believed the place was the cradle of ceramic art and wanted to reshape it with this cultural feature.

And there the idea of building a ceramic art village was born. Two years later, he signed an agreement with the local government to renovate this village with his artist's eyes.

"It was a natural space covering 3,000 mu (2 square kilometers). I wanted to integrate the charm of sancai art with the natural environment," he says.