souvenirs

We went to many factories that were included in all our tours.  It was actually very smart.  Someone in our group always bought something.  :)

One of my favorites was a silk manufacturer.  They showed us how it works from start to finish.

If it is a single silk worm pod then it is hooked up here to be unwound.

If it's a double silk worm pod then it can't be unwound.  The silk from both worms are tangled together.  That silk will be cleaned and stretched to be made into a comforter.  We bought one.  We love it!  We also bought a duvet.  Very slippery. 

We bought a generation ball at a Jade factory in Xian. 

In Xian we also bought this hand stitched panel.  We had them write our names in Chinese.  Brian's name is on the left.  I had them framed in black bamboo.  I think they turned out great.

In Beijing we went to an enamel factory, unfortunately we couldn't take pictures of them working.  It was very cool to watch.  They have an enamel vase/item, and they put on the small enamel pieces with tweezers, one at a time. Then they use a medicine dropper to fill in with color.  They will fill in the color with 7 layers.  Then it is fired.  I ended up buying a pen and a couple of ornaments.  The one below I'm going to send to a friend.  She lives in Boerne and I just had to buy it for her.  :)