Top: OpiumOne's jewelry is handmade by workers in Dali, Yunnan and sell across the world. Above: Astrid Hansen and Soren Thisted operate the company, which has expanded from a staff of 35 to more than 750 workers. Photos Provided to China Daily

Danish couple's high-end macrame export business takes off in the mountains of Yunnan

Soren Thisted and Astrid Hansen are an active link between two unlikely places. Both from Copenhagen, Denmark, the couple now call the patch of Yunnan province that is Dali home. There, 2,200 meters above sea level in the foothills of the Himalayas, they run OpiumOne, a thriving high-end macram jewelry business that employs more than 750 locals.

Macram is the art of decorative knot weaving, and dates back to 13th century Arab weavers. After spreading through Europe via sailors and traders and then to China, zhongguojie (Chinese knots) can now be seen everywhere as good luck ornaments.

Thisted's longtime fascination of Eastern cultures, minorities and handicrafts is what brought the 40-year-old, who was previously studying language in Japan and sourcing gemstones in India, to Dali.

His passion shows through in the company, whose pieces are all handmade, and whose diverse staff is encouraged to introduce their own expertise. Drawn mainly from the Bai, Yi, Miao, and Muslim ethnic minorities, OpiumOne's workers grow up steeped in rich handicraft traditions, with some "making their own wedding dresses."

The company's most complex designs require up to 16 hours of handiwork, and senior employees know over 100 different techniques.

Recently landing several large accounts with private label brands, the enterprise has witnessed incredible growth, from 35 workers in October last year to currently nearly 800.

However, as glamorous as 'incredible growth', 'jewelry' and 'the Himalayas' might sound, 'challenging' is a word that crops up often when the couple speak about their experiences in China.

The sheer cultural and physical distances between the makers and the buyers of the jewelry, for instance, present significant mental barriers.

"These are people who've come down to work from the mountains, from hillside villages," Thisted explains. "It's really challenging to make them understand: Your work might be sold on Bond Street, on Fifth Avenue, in Tokyo and what that means."

As proponents of fair trade, the Danish couple says they are committed to maintaining high standards of quality control while ensuring good working conditions and food, as well as regular recreational activities, for staff.

But sometimes even the best of intentions can go a little awry.

Hansen, 27, a yoga instructor, planned a sophisticated yoga scheme for staff, whose work puts extended stress on hands and shoulders. But things proved much more difficult in practice.

When she first demonstrated some exercises, the staff "just stared at me and found it very embarrassing and strange".

To the wholly uninitiated audience, "I just seemed like this crazy laowai jumping up and down in front of them"

Since then, Hansen has settled for a simpler set of exercises. Good things come of such situations, too: The very oddness of yoga to the workers is guaranteed to "get a smile on their faces", she says, and the added humorous element makes it even more of "a good way to be together".

There are plenty of other ongoing challenges, from providing alternatives to local food ("I didn't grow up on rice and chili," Thisted jokes), to the absence of environmental consciousness amongst the workers, as well as Dali's lack of infrastructure.

Living in such beautiful surroundings, Thisted and Hansen are keen to cultivate in their staff a respect for and understanding of how the environment works.

"They've never had any eco-system education," Thisted notes, "so they don't realize where garbage goes. If it goes into the water they think that's OK."

And with Dali's lack of proper roads and reliable transportation, many locals spend hours each day on simple tasks, such as buying food.

Still, there have been noticeable changes. There are now two

highways in the area rather than none, compared to when Thisted first visited years ago.

The smallest of building projects often bring more communication hurdles. An exchange with local builders regarding something as small as a hot-and-cold water faucet design, for instance, can be tricky.

"These builders have never had running hot water," Hansen says, "so of course they didn't see why we wanted it a certain way."

The locals can be refreshingly frank, she chuckles. "Sometimes they'll listen to you, then say: 'No, that will look stupid. We'll do it our way'. Amazing."

Most recently, the couple was told it was bad feng shui practice to plant a tree in the middle of their courtyard because it would "confuse good energy".

With the consensus of an impromptu 'committee', Hansen and Thisted were finally able to plant their tree - a little to the side of the yard, of course.

The Danes narrate these challenges and little cultural frictions calmly. It has probably helped that both have traveled widely and lived in several different countries previously.

Initially, leaving "little, idyllic Denmark" to study Spanish in Central America, then volunteer as a teacher in Tanzania, felt like entering "the real world," Hansen recalls. "And now I'm in China, with my hands full of jewelry!"

The 27-year-old from Copenhagen sounds amazed herself at where life has taken her, since first meeting Thisted at a jewelry exhibition in Denmark three years ago.

To Thisted, the important thing for foreigners living in China, particularly entrepreneurs, is to "be extremely patient, and open-minded." For him, "the whole world is opening up to new impressions We have so much to share."

Hansen finds the unique work ethic of the local culture, for example, perpetually striking and rewarding to witness.

"The old people work so hard here," she says incredulously. "You see them when it's still dark in the morning, walking in the mountains with their little torches You see people who must be nearly a hundred carrying I don't know how many kilos."

She also stresses, like Thisted, that a little patience and effort can go a long way.

"In the beginning," she remembers, "a lot of the people here were skeptical. Maybe because we looked different or Western."

But after learning a bit of Chinese and trying it out on the locals, she soon discovered that "with just a few words, they crack open."

And there is also the natural beauty of their new home. Hansen says the surrounding Cangshan mountains define the area's geography.

"If you take the cable-car ride up, it gives you the most fantastic view, and the most fantastic walk," recommends Hansen. "Just go up there with the birds singing. You see the fields, the old town, the lake, the beautiful clouds. It's like pure meditation."

Striving towards a symbiotic relationship with both the environment and its staff, OpiumOne embodies a new mode of entrepreneurship in China.

In Thisted's words: "We're doing a lot for them, and they do a lot for us."