Wen Yonghua sews a six-face pillow. [Photo/Baotou news network]

Wen Yonghua used her skillful hands to make the six-face pillow that is on display at the Palace Museum in Beijing. Wen inherited the skill and learned about its culture and history in Baotou.

In 2015, the skill of making six-face pillows was included in the fifth batch of intangible cultural heritage items list from North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region. It is the only customized product that has been on display at the Silk Exhibition Hall in the Palace Museum for nine consecutive years. Wen is part of the fourth generation in her family to inherit this skill.

In 2015, with the help and guidance of the Baotou municipal women's federation, Wen founded the Six-face Pillow Handicraft Workshop, and hired local women to learn and co-produce these pillows, which led to local employment.

Wen teaches a local woman the skill needed to handmake the six-face pillow. [Photo/Baotou news network]

The six-face pillow made by Wen's workshop has been selected as one of the highlighted souvenirs in Baotou and even in Inner Mongolia.

Walking into Wen's workshop, you can see six-face pillows with different shapes and colors everywhere. Wen stated, "The pillow has six faces, six holes, and its center is a hollow shape. Sleeping on your side will make you feel comfortable because your ears are placed in the hole and are not crushed."

According to reports, making a traditional six-face pillow requires 36 processes, 2,600 stitches, and that the pillow core of a single pillow takes two or three hours to fill.