A short train ride from Shanghair is Suzhou pronounced Sujo. It's a big silk producing city. Like Jade, the Chinese place great value on silk.
This is the train station in Suzhou, very modern. Suzhou is not the greatest city in China, it hasn't seen the same level of modernising as Shanghai and does not have the historical sites of Bejing. Suzhou is basically a canal and silk town. It used to be quite important because of its rivers but since we have cars and planes and stuff the boats aren't important anymore.
This is the walkway to the boats, lined with stalls and shops.
We took a boat ride, one late 50-64 year old woman paddled 6 fully grown adults down the canal. She even sang a song eventually. We all gave her a big tip.
Oh yeah, Suzhou has more of these gardens but they all start to look the same after a while and none of the Suzhou ones were as good as Mr Pan's.
Banana tree. Mmmmmmmmmm
This is inside the silk factory and you can see the various stages of the silkworm.
These are the pods which have to be handled carefully. They drown the silkworms in their pods because if they don't they break out of the cocoon and break the thread.
They cultivate the worms with food and a hot lamp. One person I was with I dared to stroke one of them, he did and the worm popped his head up to look. Sooo creepy.
This is how it used to be weaved.
Some historical garments were shown.
This is the production line. These ladies need some stools.
Here are the modern machines and by modern I mean like from the 60s.
I know this entry wasn't that entertaining but the next one should be.
We headed back to Shanghai for the last time. :(
I thought the pods were dumplings.
Silkworms are awesome.
It's quite interesting, actually. That weaving machine looks awfully like a huge contraption I saw in Mérida, that was used to weave henequen fibers.
After years of going commando I got some silk boxers and they are great, you can barely feel them. I understand why people buy silk PJs now.
You can get silk bedding but 100% is very expensive, about over £300.
You can get silk quilts made from the double cocoon shells which they cannot use for thread. I got got one, it's very good, it feels so comfortable. It naturally curves around your body shape, unlike other quilts which just sort of, stiffly sit on top of you.
You can order them online from the shop I got them from in Suzhou, about £60 for a double. If anyone is interested let me know and I'll look up the website.
I think I tried out a silk shirt once. It feels good, but it's not really useful for hot, humid environments such as here. You sweat and it shows immediately, and then your clothes stick to you because of the sweat. Same goes for underwear, although I concede that having silk boxers must the the pimpest fucking thing ever.
I guess there are places that sell silk bedsheets around here, dunno really.
I got some high thread count cotton sheets which are pretty good.
The Silk Factory tour said that silk is self cleaning. I'm quite dubious on that.
So you can piss and shit on it and it'll clen itself? Awesome.