Song Zhenping, who initially worked for a bank in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, made a career change due to a passion for traditional handicraft.

After her resignation from the bank, she started a business making the cloth tiger embroidery of the Sui people 13 years ago. Based on the original cloth tiger model, Song redesigned the folk art and set up a standard process for employees to craft it, including senior locals she hired.

In Song's workshop, a majority of employees are in their 60s and each finishes more than 10 cloth tigers per day, bringing them more than 100 yuan ($15.81) in daily income.

According to Song, cloth tigers are very popular with tourists, priced anywhere from dozens of yuan to a hundred each, valuing her annual output up to 10 million yuan.