11/19/07 Cloisonne' Factory, Ming Tombs, Tea

CLOISONNE'

After our cold windy visit to the Great Wall, our visit to an inside factory of Cloisonne' was welcome. I had seen and heard of Cloisonne', but had no idea that it begins with a copper item, a vase or jewelry or knick knack. Then strips of copper are applied with a glue. The resulting space is then filled with layers of enamel in beautiful colors. Some of the workers looked very young. This girl looked 10 or 12, but then, the ladies here all look young, I think. There was another small girl who was doing very tiny items like toys, Christmas decorations, or beads for a necklace. The girl at the left and the lady below are applying the copper strips to outline the flowers and decorations.

This gentleman is cutting strips of copper to be applied to larger pieces, large vases for example. These strips were at least 1/4 inch wide. The strips on smaller pieces were very narrow, some just like copper wire. The girls below are applying the layers of enamel to fill in the outlines of the flowers.

The Ming Tombs

Our next stop was at the Ming Tombs. I had been trying very hard to assimilate all the history that our guide, Solomon, had been telling us. He kept giving us little quizes, and seemed pleased that we couldn't remember. By the time we arrived at the Ming Tombs, however, I really didn't care about the 13 emperors buried there, and the one who was not buried there. I was just tired, and disappointed that we couldn't get into the tombs because they were being repaired. I took these pictures of the policemen for Brian, the policeman in our family. They were guarding the tombs and the museum. You can see here a huge kimono made of beautiful silks. In the next picture, a group of us are emerging from the courtyard around the tombs. We encountered here the "thresholds" which were about a 12"-15" high. The thresholds were at every outside door, placed there to keep out the ghosts! I understand that Chinese ghosts or skeletons cannot bend at the knees, so they cannot get in the door with the threshold there to step over! Men are to step over a threshold with their left foot. Women step over with their right foot.. because women are always "right!"

Chinese TeaWe visited a tea shop in the late afternoon. It was interesting, but it was warm in there. We tasted several different kinds of tea. They had a process of pouring and re-pouring the tea. None of it was very strong at all. We were in a small room. We were tired, and the warm (not hot) tea was comforting. We took a group picture. We went to our restaurant for the evening meal. Almost every restaurant had an aquarium, flower arrangements, and lots of bright colors.

Then we were on our way back to our hotel with the wonderful silk comforters. We needed to pack and be ready to fly to Xi'an (see on) in the morning. We didn't know how amazing our visit in Xi'an would be!