China V: Silk, Gardens, and more

continued from Monday 3/23

The Silk Factory was really interesting. We saw the life cycle of the silkworm and the processing of cocoons into silk thread and batting for comforters.

Picture above shows containers with, from left to right, eggs, caterpillers, pupae in various stages, and at the far right, the sightless, flightless moth, whose only function is to lay more eggs.

Silkworms, which are actually caterpillars which have been bred over centuries into blind, flightless eating and spinning machines. Silk is made of the clear secretions from the silkworm's saliva glands, which it uses to create its cocoon after it has stuffed itself with mulberry leaves.

There are two types of cocoons, single and double. Single cocoons, containing one pupa, are steamed to kill the worm, washed, soaked, and "dewormed", and placed on machines that draw the strands out into single ply threads, several strands of which are woven together to make silk thread for further weaving into cloth. The rarer double cocoons, which contain two pupae and are larger, are also steamed and washed, but then are stretched by hand in a fascinating process to form the layers of batting for comforters. One double cocoon is stretched by hand to cover an area the size of a bed quilt--I know that's true because I saw it done! The layer is very thin, of course, and it takes dozens of layers to create the batting for one comforter. The multiple layers are what give the comforter its characteristic warmth in winter and coolness in summer, while remaining almost feather light. The comforter I bought is very warm and lightweight, and I haven't used my electric blanket since I put the comforter on my bed!

The white cloth at the bottom of the above picture shows part of a silk comforter. The colorful silk above it a duvet cover.

I splurged and got myself a set of sheets, pillowcases, a pillow, a mattress cover and a comforter. Also pj's, some scarves, and some things for gifts.

The picture above was taken in the lobby of the Silk Factory. We could take pictures there, where the educational materials were laid out, but no photographs were allowed inside the factory where the actual silk work was done. The orange sign actually says, "No photographing, No picturing".

The Chinese guard their silk making and weaving processes carefully. Silk remained a Chinese monopoly from 2640 BC, when breeding of silkworms is said to have begun on a large scale, until 3000 years later, when the secret of the worms was smuggled out of China by various travelers.

After that we went to the Lingering Garden, a famous and huge private garden which was lovely and peaceful. There I bought a silkscreen panda for Kim.

The Lingering Garden is one of the largest gardens in Suzhou. It was built by a Ming dynasty doctor who wanted to give his patients a relaxing place from which to recover from illness.

The Chinese take their gardens very seriously. I can understand why. With the density of their population, they are desperate to preserve places where one can come and find peace and quiet. According to National Geographic's Atlas of China, the population of the world, as of 2008 was
6.7 billion. The population of China at that time was 1.3 + billion, meaning approximately one of every five humans on earth lives in China. Since much of the interior is uninhabitable desert, many people cluster in China's numerous large cities. The Chinese are a loud people--when carrying on a normal conversation they sound as if they are arguing! Add the honking horns and other traffic noise, the squawking ducks and chickens in the markets, and other sundry noises and the din in some places is awful! No wonder they prize their peaceful parks and gardens. Years ago there were a lot more gardens, parks, and Buddhist temples, but the Red Guard destroyed many of them during the late 1960's "Cultural Revolution"--a contradiction in terms if ever there was one. Thank goodness the remaining ones were spared.

Here's another delightful example of "Chinglish", on a sign just inside the Lingering Garden gate. It may not translate well, but you certainly get the idea.

More examples of the large stones from Tai Lake, which appear in nearly every large Chinese garden.

Below is a shot of an interior at the Lingering Garden. One of these pieces of furniture is an opium couch.


I always associated bonzai with Japan, but apparently it is another Chinese art borrowed by the Japanese. We saw a lot of beautiful bonzai arrangements in this garden.

We had lunch at another nice buffet near the Silk Factory and then headed to the Silk Embroidery Institute. This was an astounding place. We watched the process and then saw thousands of pieces, many museum quality. This is truly an art! I had no idea of the beauty of these products. I bought 2 small "student pieces", and one larger one in a hanging frame. It's a white cat with green eyes playing with a grasshopper and I think it's charming, as well as exquisite. I plan to put it on the piano. No pictures allowed in this place either!

We then set out for the two and a half hour drive to Hangzhou. By this time it was raining and traffic was bad. The highway was somewhat bumpy and the shocks in the bus leave something to be desired. My back was hurting, so Carol's brother Bob gave me a vicodan, bless his heart. He's a doctor, who recently had knee surgery and had brought along the medicine in case he needed it. That helped a lot, and the rest of the trip was more comfortable. We went to our hotel and then to dinner. After dinner I had a lovely dessert and jasmine tea in the bar, and then came up to bed. Tomorrow is the lake cruise and I'm looking forward to that.

Here's a preview of the lake cruise, but I'm stopping here. The next China blog will be the last for this trip, and hopefully will be up tomorrow.