Gold foils

As thin gold slices of no more than 0.1 micro-meter thick produced through constant hammering, they are used as decorative parts of buildings, objects, Buddhist statues and ingredients of precious Chinese medicine. With a long history, gold foils in Nanjing can be traced as early as back to the Southern Dynasties. Production of gold and silver foils and the establishment of Production Administration were already recorded in the literature at that time. The Yuan Dynasty began to see production of gold foils in large quantities. There was further development in the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty. In 1975 outside Taiping City-Gate, gold-thread garments excavated from the tomb of Xu Fu, the posterity of the fifth generation of Xu Da, were the witness to gold threads of Nanjing over 400 years ago.
Gold foils are produced in Longtan town on the eastern outskirts of Nanjing and Huayuan rural town in Jiangning district as the distribution centers for the production of gold foils and threads. Local farmers all boast the craftsmanship of “Foil-hammmering” and “Thread-production”handed down from generation to generation. Gold-foil produciton in Nanjing is marked by unique craftsmanship and high techniques. Since ancient times, there has been “hammering” by hand as a special traditional craftsmanship in China. Processing of gold foils involves over ten work-procedures, e.g. melting gold into bars, Paiye, Luokaizi, Kangkang, making wicks, hammering out at gold foils, Chuju and cutting foils as refined processing, turning gold bars into very thin gold foils. 1100 pieces of gold foils, when piled together, are less than 0.1 centi-meter high. Nanjing gold foils enjoy great fame far and wide thanks to their high quality.