In Shaanxi, or more specifically, the Central Shaanxi Plain, it is usual to meet an old man wearing a kerchief on the head and a Chinese-style vest with buttons down the front or an old woman wearing a black or white handkerchief on the head. Cotton abounds in the region around Shaanxi, and the locals are accustomed to using cotton to make handkerchiefs and wearing them as a sort of headdress, which not only shelter the wearer from dust, rain, and sunlight but also can be used either to wipe off the dirt from the hands or as a thing to wrap other things with. This makes a cotton handkerchief worn on the head both convenient and useful.