The woodcut New Year pictures of Yangliuqing have a strong flavor of life. People in the Yangliuqing village and 32 villages nearby, 20 kilometers from the west of Tianjin City proper, are all engaged in making New Year pictures. The New Year pictures are a unique art form with even arrangement, forceful stokes, elegant colors and beautiful shapes.

Yangliuqing New Year pictures are different from other New Year pictures, for it is Xylograph in terms of craft. Xylograph of Yangliuqing originated in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and matured in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when it was chosen as an article of tributes to the imperial family. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, it was on the decline due to the prevalence of foreign paintings. In the 1960s, it finally recovered its splendor and improved the craft with the support from the new government.

The process of making a Yangliuqing New Year picture has a dozen steps like plotting, craving, to name a few. It perfectly relates color and emotion, folk painting and standard paining, realism and romanticism. It covers an extensive range of subjects like folk custom, legendary stories, historic events, and opera, usually via emblems and symbols to deliver the theme.

Yangliuqing New Year pictures are a gem of art and loved by people both at home and abroad. It is exported to Italy, France, Britain, Belgium, Japan, Canada, the US, Singapore and Mexico, etc.