Young people in ancient costumes and elaborate hair decorations are mingling with the usual amount of puffer jackets. You'd be forgiven for thinking this is yet another new trend that has caught Beijing's youth. However, the students are on the sincere quest of reviving an old Chinese costume that is at risk of becoming extinct.

Member of the Beijing Hanfu BBS, poses for the camera in the streets around Qianmen Square in Beijing on February 5th, 2012.

Hanfu is the clothes of the ethnic Han group. It's similar to the traditional costume style of the past two thousand years, although the craft, material and decoration are different. The costume is both about the dresses and the hairstyles. It contains garments that are arranged in distinctive and sometimes specific ways. But actually the costume isn't as impractical as it might seem.