Shanghai is such a cosmopolitan city that there are sections of it for different nationalities. For example, like San Francisco has Chinatown, our hotel the Hilton Shanghai is in Shanghai’s French Concession area. We noticed that both Ping and our local guide Yo Yo referred to the section as the French quarter.

Yesterday, we visited the British section called The Bund. It is on the riverfront, and they built the buildings facing the riverfront in the 20s, 30s, and 40s before the Civil War and communist revolution.

We visited a bank that was built during this period of neo-classical design and a hotel called the Peace Hotel. This hotel is now a Fairmont.  They built both in the 1920s.

 

 

This is also the financial district, and the Chinese stock market is here in the Bund in Shanghai.

Much of the architecture is British colonial in style.

But the interior of the hotel lobby was art deco.

It was a nice visit, and we walked up on the quay to see the skyline view of the newer part of the city on the other side of the river. Our guide explained that across the river was all farmland up until about 20 years ago.  This is how much they built in the last two decades.  It gave us an idea of how fast China is growing.

The way young women dress in China impressed me. They seem very conscious of how they dress, and many seem to have a trend all their own.

For example, in Chongqing the young girls wore short dresses that had circular skirts.

I also noticed that many of them wore backpacks that are used as  purses.  They like to color coordinate, including their little girls.
Many of them seemed to wear dresses, though we saw all kinds of fashions. And when the sun cameout, the parasols came out, too.

At our hotel they had a wedding last night. They decorated the staircase in the hotel with flowers of pale green and pale peach using roses.

This is a very modern hotel, compared to our other two hotels in China. My favorite was in Xian, and I especially liked my friend the terra-cotta warrior.

They decorated the hotel in Beijing in a Contemporary Chinese style.

Our room was garnet and gold, fit for a suffering Nole!  We just lost to Louisville.

In the hotel in Beijing our view was view was an upscale neighborhood, but then we noticed that none of the lights came on in the evenings.  We think the houses were vacant, probably a product of the 2008 downturn.

After lunch we went to a silk factory.  First, they explained the process and showed us what a silkworm looks like in the larval stage.

They told us that the worm produces a single continuous silk thread and keeps doing this over 20 days until he is totally encapsulated. When he finishes, he becomes no larger than this, though you cannot see him inside the cocoon.  He looks alien, doesn’t he?

Next the people at the factory soaked the cocoons until they softened.

Then they placed the cocoons in a machine and in water where they used a brush to pull up the individual thread from each cocoon.  They twisted seven of these threads together pulling them up from the cocoons floating in the water below.  The machine pulled and twisted these seven threads together to make one strong thread. It wrapped this thread around a spindle.
These threads are used to weave fabrics.

Some cocoons have two worms in them, and they produce two long threads that create the cocoon.  These are used for another process, batting for comforters.  The twins’ cocoons are larger.

Again they softened them in water. And then they took the cocoon and pulled it apart until it was about the size of a dinner plate.

Then they stretched it over a frame, stretching several cocoons over the frame before they stopped to let it dry.  Once it dries, it turns back white.

Next they stretched the dried cocoon out even wider to create the stuffing for a silk filled comforter.

They add one at a time until they get the loft that they want. They let us spread one cocoon.

This is how it looks when it reaches the loft that is desired. It is very soft.

Of course, we could buy a silk filled comforter and a silk duvet to match. Chuck and I decided against purchasing it for ourselves, though, because I’m kind of done with duvets. They are a pain to stuff and then to maintain the look that you want.

They also had a section of silk clothing to purchase.   It was a great learning experience and tour.

We spent the rest of the afternoon packing, and last evening we had a farewell dinner at a French restaurant in the French Concession. We said goodbye to several of the couples that are returning to the states, and today the rest of us flew on to Hong Kong.