Forbidden City

Yesterday we toured the silk factory, the Forbidden City, had a tea party, ate lunch at a local Chinese restaurant and ordered John a suit for Kimmy's wedding.

The silk factory is very interesting and there are notes on the pictures to explain. Much of the work has to be done by hand because machines don't have the delicacy that a human can feel when unwrapping and stretching a fabric that is not the same any two times. The single thread type of silk comes from the cocoon that has a single worm, but the cocoons that have twins produce a mucous that interacts with each other and it is softer and more like a mat than a thread; this is used for blankets.

The rugs are made from the thread type and each knot has an exact place for it to go, per the pattern, and each is hand tied and then cut of to be the exact right length. The small pictured rug is about 4 s/f and took 2 years to make. The larger one, on the loom, take about 1 year.

WE then went to Tienanmen Square. It was very windy and cold, but beautiful. From there across the street to the Forbidden City. What a place, consisting of 9999 different rooms, so the emperor could never sleep in the same room- for safety. It was built in 1406 and took 15 years to complete and is reported to have 1 million workers. It is a crazy sprawling complex of temples, out buildings and court yards. So much worship of men, tradition and superstition. Satan is working hard to confuse the minds of his followers.

We had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant and it was really good. They actually bring all the place settings in shrink wrap- the dishes are cleaned off site. We had "pan cakes" which John really likes, deep fried pork meat balls with a salt mixture to dip in, pork intestines, which was very spicy and I didn't care for the actual flavor- even before I knew what it was- a beef dish of some sort- was pretty good, and my favorite is pork with Beijing sauce. It reminds me of a soy sauce reduction- a little like the PF Chang sauce- served over sliced green onions. YUMMM! No wonder I am getting so fat.

We then went to a tea room and had a tea party. Tasted, learned, laughed and tasted some more. Our favorite is oolong- which is black tea with ginseng. Next is the jasmine tea. The flowering tea was very fun to watch and we bought a couple to have a show with.

We then went to the silk market to order John a suit for Kimmy's wedding. I figured tat it will be difficult to get one his size in the US and it is so cheap here. About $100 gets you a suit out of nice fabric and 2 custom made shirts. He has never had a suit before. Another first.