"The painting work was laborious," said Zhao Jianwen, general manager of Helan Guangyin Rice Industry Co. Ltd. "Farmers needed to rope off patches of paddies and use various types of rice seed to create different colors, according to the blueprint designed by computers."

"We plan to make more paddy paintings next year that will tell the stories in 'Journey to the West,' in which the main character Xuanzang and his disciples embarked on a pilgrimage to India to bring back Buddhist scripts."