TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan artist Lee Chien-chu stands in front of Xilou Bridge proudly holding up a miniature carving of the landmark, the latest offering in his pencil sculpture series.

Lee has been peering through a magnifying glass to create miniature sculptures of various landmarks and symbols out of pencil lead for six years at his home in Yunlin County in westernTaiwan.

His tiny sculptures can be as little as 0.1 mm long and take hours to finish.

"I have created a series about Buddha hands, a series about architecture, one about traditional (Chinese) weapons and one about the alphabet. Those are all artworks that I like very much," Lee told Reuters.