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Website links to
Beifan Associates
Wuxi Site Homepage.
Places to go and see.
Beifan.com
Metcn8.com.
Beifanchina.com.
Chinadan.com
Photos of Dragons.
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Processing Of Silk From Cocoons Presented On Wuxi Travel Website.
Going to Wuxi to open a tin mine would be a wasted journey, because there is none left. That is what the name 'Wuxi' means, for in many years past there used to be tin mines, but then the source was depleted! That is what we were told when we arrived in Wuxi; there is always something new to learn. However, what is on this travel website about Wuxi is not tin but mostly about silk.
Arriving at Wuxi by a cruise boat on the grand canal, we had to cross the deck of another moored boat, to get to the landing stage, where a luxury tour coach was waiting to take us to our hotel, and that is where we had our lunch. After lunch there was another ride through the streets of Wuxi to the workshops where cocoons from silkworms were processed on very noisy spinners.
Silkworms are not actually worms but caterpillars, that spend most of their lives chewing away on mulberry leaves. In due course the caterpillars weave a cocoon around themselves to go through the process of pupation, and in time to emerge as moths. Unknown to them, this cycle of events is disrupted, for the cocoons are harvested for the production of silk. The Group were taken to visit a workshop in Wuxi where the silk cocoons were processed. Before entering the workshop we were shown some large bamboo 'trays' on which silkworms were munching away at fresh mulberry leaves, and around the edge of the trays were some cocoons woven by other silkworms. In the noisy workshop, the harvested and processed cocoons were first sorted by hand, to remove any that showed signs of damage or discoloration.
The sorting process is shown on this page of the Wuxi website.
Silkworms, Silkworm Cocoons, Spinning And Weaving Of Fine Silk Thread.
When we went into the workshop the noise of the spinning machines was quite loud. The front part of the spinning machines was a trough in which hundreds of cocoons were floating in hot water. A worker fed a number of the fine silk from the cocoons onto the spinners, and the resulting thread was picked up and made into skeins. The skeins of glistenning white silk were then packed into boxes, passed to other workshops for colouring, and weaving into silk materials, some plain colors, some with elaborately woven designs. Of course when the visit was coming to an end, we were taken to the 'department shop' where counters were piled with rolls of silk material, and where silk dresses and shirts were amongst the items that could be bought.
Even in 1987 China had started the process of building new houses, apartments, factories etc, as we saw when we left the workshop to return to our coach. Sitting on a low wall at the side of the pavement were some building workers wearing hardhats made from bamboo. On the opposite side of the road other workers were at the top of a partly constructed building clad with bamboo scaffolding. Near our coach a woman had a pushchair in which sat a baby girl; the pushchair was made from bamboo. Later on in our visit to Wuxi we went to Jichuang where some of the group climbed up to the mountain top pagoda, whilst others sat in the lakeside pavilion, enjoying some tea and cakes. Tables and chairs in the pavilion were made from bamboo. The Pandas of China are not the only living beings making good use of the versatile bamboo!
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