Rice field art pieces covering vast expanses of green in Shenyang, a city in China's north-eastern Liaoning province, have attracted much attention.

Many of the designs feature simple and abstract patterns in rough outlines. These pieces of rice field art showcase images such as words, animals, plants, geographical locations, Chinese deities and famous portraits - even one of actor Rowan Atkinson as the eponymous character of the British comedy Mr Bean (above).

The plant-based pieces are so intricate that they look as though they were spray-painted onto the fields.

In reality, the spectacular designs were actually planned out ahead of time, using rice saplings that grow to be of different heights and colours.