A foreign root carving artist showcases his work at a previous China Root Carving On-Site Creation Competition in Kaihua, a county in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: khnews6660365]

The 6th China Root Carving On-Site Creation Competition is set to take place from Dec 1 to 6 in the Root Palace Buddhist Cultural Tourism Zone in Kaihua, a county in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang province.

Fifty-five root carving artists from China and abroad have confirmed they will attend the competition.

A total of 179,000 yuan ($26,000) in prize money will be given out to the 23 winners, with first place receiving 60,000 yuan.

During the competition, Zhejiang's provincial standards for root carving will be released. The standards were included in the fourth series of Made in Zhejiang standards in 2018.

Kaihua has a long history of root carving that can be traced back to the Tang (618-907) and Song dynasties (960-1279), and the county's Root Palace Buddhist Cultural Tourism Zone is the only root theme park in the world.

The scenic area, a national 5A attraction, covers an area of 3.03 square kilometers and houses more than 5,000 large-scale root carving works. It is also home to the world's largest root statue of Sakyamuni Buddha and a 680-meter-long giant root carving work known as Arhat Array.