Sericulture Tour - Making Silk in Shanghai

On Saturday, September 27, Chris and I joined the Shanghai & Beyond tour group on a trip to Nanxun, which is about 90 minutes southwest of Shanghai, to learn about Sericulture - the process of raising silkworms.

In the Yangtze river delta, silkworms are raised only twice a year-May and September, so we took to a tour out to Nanxun, an old water town, to see this ancient skill and observe the traditional methods still being used today. According to our guides, this heritage skill will eventually fade into history as China’s younger generation seeks sustainable and better paying jobs in the cities.

We started our day at the factory, where we saw some of the finished silk bedding products produced for the Chinese market.  We learned that the factory owner purchases eggs from the University in Suzhou, where they have the moths who lay the eggs that will grown into silkworms.  The eggs go to the farmers to be raised for 30 days.  There are many farmers raising silkworms for the factory, so we went to a farm to see the process up close.


The farm didn't look at all like what we think a farm is - it was a long table in the back room of someone's house with 20,000 silkworms spread out on a table munching on mulberry leaves.  

The farmers were very happy to see us, as were there neighbors, who came out to take pictures of us.  The silkworms were nearing the end of their 30-day growth cycle, during which they have to be watched and fed constantly.  The noise of them eating their mulberry leaves was amazing and the constantly wiggling table was a little creepy.  Within a few days, the silkworms will poop and then begin to spin their cocoons.  Once the silken cocoons are finished, the farmer will harvest and boil them, thereby killing the worm inside, and deliver them to the factory.  It takes a good 10,000 cocoons to make an average duvet, so the factory receives hundreds of thousands of cocoons.


We drove from the farm back to the factory to see the different types of bedding made by this particular factory and learn about the process of taking this silken thread and stretching it into the filling of these remarkable duvets.  Silk duvets keep you both warm and cool and are lightweight, soft and fluffy.  We've had them in our home in Elmhurst for more than 10 years, but didn't really understand the process until this tour.


Everyone was given the opportunity to purchase bedding, if desired, even though shopping is not a usual component of a Shanghai and Beyond tour.  Of course, we ordered a new "summer weight" duvet for our king-sized bed back in the U.S. as well as a new pillow for me.  The silk is hypo-allergenic, so I want to see how well I like the pillows, as we've never tried them before.
 
The factory owners live on the factory complex and hosted us for the private tour and then served us lunch at their home.  Of course, I had checked ahead of time and couldn't eat any of the lunch, as we had no idea what was in any of it, so I brought a lunch of my own.  Chris enjoyed it though.  :)
 
After lunch, we headed back to the old part of town, the beautiful old water town.  We toured the 19th century homes and gardens of the wealthy families that helped build the silk industry in the community and took a boat ride on the canals.  The canals were so peaceful and the gardens were lovely.

Even though it was a three-hour round trip drive, the tour was fascinating and well worth the drive.  We learned a lot, had a beautiful day in the country, and ordered some great new silk bedding.

Australia, Part Four - Random Animal Pictures

Australia, Part Three - Melbourne

Chris and I flew to Melbourne on Monday, September 15, arriving late in the day to our hotel, Rydges, which is downtown, right on the edge of Chinatown.  Melbourne is known to be the city with all four seasons in a single day, but from our 4 days in Melbourne, we can safely say they mean 4 seasons in every single day.  We could start out sunny and bright, need to pull out an umbrella, add layers of jackets, drop the umbrella, peel off the layers, and then start over, all in a single day.  What a crazy temperature, although mostly chilly while we were there.  On Monday night, we met Chris's Australian colleagues for a nice dinner in an Italian restaurant.  Of the five people we met up with, two had been traveling with us in Sydney and Port Douglas.  Dinner was fun, relaxed, and fortunately, not too late.

On Tuesday, September 16, Chris had to go work, as Melbourne is where the FHP Australian office is.  He was gone all day, even though it was my birthday, so I decided to try out the hop-on, hop-off bus for an overall tour of Melbourne.  I picked up the bus directly in front of our hotel and rode to the Federation Square stop, where I transferred to the St. Kilda line and went out to the beach on Port Phillip Bay.  Given the cold, grey skies, and intermittent rain, the beach didn't look to appealing, although I'm sure it's pretty in sunny weather.  There were so few people on the bus when I first got on, I thought I was alone, but there were a few brave souls trying to stick it up on the top deck of the bus, which was cold and wet despite the canvas roof.  I moved back and forth, depending on the intensity of the rain, trying to get some good views and pictures.

Once I made it back to Federation Square, I transferred back onto the city tour.  The tour guide made a big deal of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but I was more impressed with the looks of Queen Victoria Market and we'd heard from a Melbourne couple on our Daintree tour that the Melbourne Zoo was great.  By the time I'd completed both tours, and stopped at Pie Face (Chris's new favorite fast food chain) for a chicken and mushroom pie, I was tired and cold and made my way back to the hotel.  When Chris got back from working, we headed out for dinner and found a nice little Greek place; apparently there's a small Greek Town just past China Town.

With Chris done with work, we headed out to tour some of Melbourne on Wednesday morning.  We caught a cab to the zoo, which was fantastic.  Not only did it give us a chance to see some Australian animals, but it is well designed and very attractive, as zoos go.  We particularly enjoyed the giant tortoises, the bird aviary, the meerkats, and the enclosure for emus and kangaroos.  After we walked all over the zoo, we caught a cab to "Little Italy," on Lygon Street in the Carlton neighborhood, for a delicious lunch at Toto's Pizzeria.  Even the gelato was delicious!  It wasn't too far to our hotel, so we walked back, through the Carlton Gardens, as it wasn't raining at the moment.  As a birthday present, in addition to going to Australia in the first place, Chris bought tickets to see Les Miserables at Her Majesty's Theatre, which was right across the street from our hotel.  We had a quick bite at a local pub before heading over for the show, which I really enjoyed.

While we were touring Melbourne, I have to say I found it funny how so many words are shortened by Australians, who in fact, call themselves Aussies.  They eat at Mackers (McDonald's) or go to a pub to catch footy on the telly - football on the television.  I can't imagine any American football fan I've every met saying they were going to a sports bar to watch some footy.  I think that the full words are just too long for Australians, who are so relaxed, they don't need the formality. 

Thursday was the day we chose for our big adventure - we hired The Private Tour Guide to take us to Phillip Island for the day, starting at noon.  We took a quick walk to Queen Victoria Market in the morning for some souvenir shopping and to pick up lunch for the ride to Phillip Island, which is about an hour and a half southeast of  Melbourne.  Queen Victoria Market is filled with food vendors, both fresh foods such as produce, meets and cheeses, and prepared sandwiches, bakery treats and sausages.  In addition, there is a large section of vendors selling clothes, shoes, gifts, luggage, and the typical items in any open-air market.  We even bought another suitcase to help carry home all of our Australian treasures.  After shopping, we walked back to the hotel to meet up with Simon, our Private Tour Guide.

Simon drove us to Phillip Island, giving us some commentary along the way as to the spread of Melbourne and the asparagus farmers along the way.  He also asked questions about us and the types of vacations we take, where we've lived, and what we liked to do.  He had lived and traveled in China for quite a while, although originally from Melbourne, so he could talk about many of the places we've visited while here.  When we got to Phillip Island, he took us to the Koala Conservation Centre, where we saw a lot of Koalas and got some great pictures.  He recommended we sign up for the guided ranger tour when we went to the penguin parade that night, which he did for us there.  

After the koala, Simon took us to several beaches and coastal viewing areas along the southern shore of Phillip Island, looking out onto the Southern Ocean and toward Tasmania.  The shoreline was breathtaking, not just because it was so windy it nearly took our breath away.  The raw beauty of the waves crashing onto the black rocks and sandy shores was stunning.  We were so taken with it, he took us to several more spots, including the Nobbies, where were named because there are two large nob-shaped rock formations off the coast.  We saw geese, birds, and wallabies and, somehow, Simon was able to get me good photos of everything.

After dinner at a Thai restaurant in Cowes came the big event - the Penguin Parade.  Every night, thousands of little penguins march ashore on Phillip Island, starting as the sun sets, returning to their same burrows by the same path.  We were lucky enough to be there in mating season, so we saw chicks and adolescent penguins as well.  We chose the penguin plus package, including the guided ranger tour, which is free but requires registration, as space is limited.  The ranger equipped us with headsets, binoculars, and folding stadium seat cushions and we set out for the bleachers.  Thousands of people come nightly to watch the penguin parade, so the ranger tour is great as we get front row seats as well as the ranger's voice in our headsets, explaining what we're seeing.  It is fascinating to see the little penguins run across the beach and quickly climb the rocks and hills back to their burrows.  No photos are allowed, as the flash is dangerous for the penguins, but the Phillip Island Nature Park has an app and a website where we could get photos they provide.  The whole experience was incredible, although it's hard to explain why it is so captivating.  It's definitely something to experience when you're in the Melbourne area and we can highly recommend Simon's services at The Private Tour Guide for an enjoyable day.  We hope to go back someday, maybe with the girls, and would love to take his tour of the Great Ocean Road as well.

While Port Douglas was beautiful and warm, I really enjoyed Melbourne.  The people are more diverse than what we saw in Sydney - the tour guide told us that of the 3.5 million people in Melbourne, 1 million are immigrants and that seemed very realistic.  There are people of all shapes and sized and they are all friendly and relaxed, as was true throughout Australia.  The rough and jagged shoreline of Phillip Island was stunning and I'd love to see more of the natural beauty of Australia.  Simon suggested that we'd love New Zealand, given how much we enjoyed the coastline and natural beauty of Phillip Island. Sounds great to me - maybe next time!