Day 6 – Silk Pupae and the Emperor’s Concubines
10/13/2009 05:16:00 PM
The hotels in the states can take a lesson from the hotels we have stayed in! Every day breakfast is a massive buffet offering everything from western fare including pancakes and eggs to Chinese’s fare of noodle soup and dim sum dumplings. I’ve tried everything and the common theme of the both types of breakfast is small portions of meat with lots to vegetables and fruit. Tricia and I have noticed there are no over-weight Chinese and contribute this to the high vegetable and fruit diets. They eat meats; pork, beef, fish, shrimp and other exotics, but the primary ingredient to their dishes is veggies and fruit. Unfortunately, we have learned that KFC is huge here in China with McDonalds running a close second. The younger generation is getting sucked into the high complex carbohydrate diets, so they better be careful or they will follow the U.S. with the average weight of the population starting to increase.
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Following breakfast we headed to the Number 1 Government Silk Factory. I was amazed of how they actually get the silk strands from the cocoons. The care of the silk worms, moths and pupae is done all by hand. Until now the harvesting of the silk was done by hand, but now they have figured out a way to automate the process. The pictures show the new machinery and the process.
Now the silk pupae that come from the cocoon is killed by boiling and the strands pulled from the cocoon by hand and loaded in the equipment. Eight cocoons are used to make one complete strand of silk running over 1,000 meters. Yeap, that’s right, a strand from one cocoon is longer than 1,000 meters or approximately 3,000 feet. They of course have strict standards for quality and only the whitest worms and cocoons are used for silk in the factory for Grade A.
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The Chinese have figured out that the silk pupae are good for your health and skin. They all encouraged us to try a pupae to help extend our lives. We of course Sean and I tried them. They were actually pretty good! A woody flavor with a slightly sour taste punch in the end. Not at all what I expected, probably because they are boiled. The Chinese actually make a drink from them that the older generation drink every morning to improve their health.
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Following the silk factory, we went to Longyi and small older community that is based on canals and lakes similar to Venice in Italy. A stop in another traditional garden we got a rare opportunity to visit with a great emperior from a little unknown provinence in the Suzhou. As you can see the great emperor has a beautiful first wife and many concubines. I personally think he was very impressive and all knowing of worldly things! LOL Needless to say, we all had fun at this garden.
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We got to enjoy a short gondola ride thru Longyi and see the sights, sounds and of course smells of this small community. We were told that some of the older folks in the town were very superstitious about taking photographs. We had to make sure we got their permission to get any photos. There were a couple that did not give me permission to take their photo, but everyone was so friendly waving at us and saying hello.
Silk Pupae from Tracy Castell on Vimeo.
Now the silk pupae that come from the cocoon is killed by boiling and the strands pulled from the cocoon by hand and loaded in the equipment. Eight cocoons are used to make one complete strand of silk running over 1,000 meters. Yeap, that’s right, a strand from one cocoon is longer than 1,000 meters or approximately 3,000 feet. They of course have strict standards for quality and only the whitest worms and cocoons are used for silk in the factory for Grade A.
The Chinese have figured out that the silk pupae are good for your health and skin. They all encouraged us to try a pupae to help extend our lives. We of course Sean and I tried them. They were actually pretty good! A woody flavor with a slightly sour taste punch in the end. Not at all what I expected, probably because they are boiled. The Chinese actually make a drink from them that the older generation drink every morning to improve their health.
Silk Pupae from Tracy Castell on Vimeo.
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NO NO NO, Tennis Shoes do NOT go well with your costumes!! Otherwise very nice picture. Didn't they have one to fit Sean? LOL!!