The Venice of China

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Unravelling cocoons

Stretching big cocoons

Helping to make a doona/duvet

Never one to pass up an opportunity

 

Today is the final, full day of our tour and after an early start from the hotel to beat the traffic, the tour guide received a telephone call from the hotel to say that one of the party was waiting in the lobby.  We then did an optional ten minute tour of Shanghai and returned to the hotel to recover the latecomer.  Back into the traffic, which was much thicker by this, (fortunately Mr Putin hadn’t decided to leave his hotel yet) and we headed for our first stop of the day – the silk outlet warehouse, government owned of course.  We had the life cycle of the silk worm explained and we then shown how the silk was extracted from the cocoons and twisted into thread ready for weaving.  However, some silkworms like to spin cocoons with a friend and these cocoons are not suitable for spinning, so the pupae are removed and the silk is stretched over frames and eventually becomes silk doonas.  We did actually purchase one, but declined the doona covers and pillowslips.  We were then let loose in the fashion store, however, the style and fit of the garments was more Asian than Australian so most people opted for silk scarves.

Is it a truck or a tractor?

Already married, so no need to hire a photo costume

Gondolas

Enjoying the ride

High-heeled gondolier

Note the concrete boat!

Laundry day

Anyone want a goose egg?

Or perhaps some sunny fish?

The village blacksmith working hard

 

Back onto the bus with all our purchases and we headed into the countryside, through the thick smog, with views of rice paddies and strawberry fields between high rise developments.  After a good hour, we arrived at Jingxu, which was a village built around canals.  It wasn’t quite what we had been expecting, but we did enjoy the gondola ride through the canals and some earnest singing by the female gondoliers.  The walk back through the village was interesting, with the guide pointing out the local delicacies on offer for sale – dead fish in the bottom of water tanks, raw shrimps (which a lady tried to get us to taste!!!), oysters and snails.  We kept our fingers crossed that lunch would not be in one of the village restaurants.

 

Unfortunately, the lunch restaurant was related to the village, with a very powerful and unpleasant smell in our Spartan dining room.  The food; well, what can one say?  A couple of spoonfuls of rice and some watermelon sufficed.

During our return to Shanghai, our bus was pulled over at a roadblock, complete with many police and soldiers with big guns.  The bus went very quiet as a very stern policeman can on board and the local guide explained that we were Australian tourists.  The policeman walked to the end of the bus, looking at everyone, and then the driver had to open the luggage compartments underneath before we were allowed to leave.  A bit scary …

Shopping selfie

We arrived back at the Fairmont with a few hours free time, so headed to the local shopping mall in the hope of finding a toy shop (to fill a request from grandson number 2).  After battling the crowds – and the traffic – we eventually found a children’s department store.  Seven floors were devoted entirely to children, with the toys on the seventh floor.  We had great fun!

Still unable to access the internet, in fact, my computer has virtually stop working.

This being our final evening meal together as a group, it was a rather formal occasion with one large table set up for us in a banquet hall.  The table was beautifully set, with white linen, silverware and beautiful flower arrangements down the centre of the large table.  Quite early in the tour, our director had asked us whether we wished to have beef or fish as the main course for the farewell dinner and we both selected the fish. 
Surprise, surprise – the fish turned out to be Tasmanian Atlantic salmon!  Apart from the breakfast buffets, this was the only western meal we were served during the entire trip – and I think everyone was rather pleased as we were all rather Chinesed out by this stage.

After the dinner, farewells were said as many of the group were leaving early the next morning.