Wuxi Chinese Blue Calico Museum is the first privately owned museum in Wuxi. It was built by a successful businessman Ruixing Lu. He has spent over ten years to set it up. It is about 17000 square meters in size. He collected thousands of valuable blue calico handcrafts from the Qing Dynasty to the 1960’s in the twentieth century. They are precious resources for research of Chinese traditional cultures. The most valuable material is Jia Xie, the woodcarving board and Jia Xie handiworks. They are the ancestors of Chinese Blue Calico.

Helen has contributed maroon canvas espadrilles from Spain. These are traditional shoes in southwest Spain and along the Mediterranean coast.  They originated from Catalonia in the Pyrenees.  The jute rope sole is the characteristic feature.