About MAWEICAO

We make Chinese incense in Guilin and work with artisans in mountain villages. Our shop carries traditional incense sticks, embroidered herbal sachets, ceramic incense holders, and gifts. We currently sell through this website only as we expand internationally.

Explore the collection

Working with the makers

We visited mountain villages to meet the artisans behind the textiles. Watching the wooden shuttles carry different threads made it easier to understand how a pattern takes shape. We work directly with the people who make the pieces.

Wooden shuttles, each carrying a different thread.

A woven pattern taking shape, thread by thread.

Materials and use

We select pieces by material, workmanship, and how they will be used. A ceramic holder needs to fit the incense; a brocade box and a silk scarf need different care. Each product page describes its own materials and method of making.

Choosing a piece

Compare sizes, fragrance, compatibility, and package contents in our collection guide. Collection guide.

Meet Zhang Mingbo

Zhang Mingbo, founder and incense maker at MAWEICAO

About 18 years ago, Zhang Mingbo was an engineer in Beijing and ran his own company. During visits to a temple where he knew the abbot, he noticed how the smell of incense helped him settle. He spent several years studying with an incense maker before making his own.

At first he made incense for his own rooms. Friends who visited his home and office noticed the difference in scent. Their response helped turn a private practice into MAWEICAO. He develops our recipes in Guilin, Guangxi, paying attention to how the botanical ingredients and binder work together.

He still uses his incense daily. He sometimes lights a stick about twenty minutes before sitting to meditate, or uses a backflow cone before tea. The journal draws on his workbench and these routines.

He often returns to these lines by the Song poet Lu You (1125–1210), from “Burning Incense and Reading on an Autumn Day”:

世事无端自纠纷，放翁隐几对炉熏。

The affairs of the world tangle themselves, endlessly, for no reason at all. I lean at my desk, face to face with the incense smoke.