He instructs Luoning students to sketch the village in 2022.[Photo provided by Li An/For China Daily]

His team collected a great number of ceramic vats from local people of Luoning and made a giant art installation out of them. From a bird's-eye view, the installation looked like a young woman, as if to say "ceramic is the daughter of the soil".

"As early as the Yangshao cultural period (a Neolithic culture dating back 4,600 to 7,000 years), people made pottery vats for storage and cooking. Now with the passage of time, they are no longer daily necessities for people. But in this village, they are now endowed with new life, becoming artistic works which are testimonies to history and also reviving memories," says Guo.

The rest of the vats were also put to good use as they were turned into flowerpots, dust bins, guideposts and winding footpaths from where visitors can see well-spaced terraced fields and valleys in full bloom.

Artists also made glazed paintings with sancai techniques and used them to decorate old houses, rammed-earth walls and traditional cave dwellings, keeping the village's old-world vibe while adding new breath to it.

"We want to take the ground as the painting canvas, turn mountains into parks and decorate the village by adding to its rustic charms. The village, after renovation, retains its natural beauty and shows the beauty of sancai art," he says.