Thursday- An Afternoon of Sightseeing

Today we spent some time sightseeing around Nanjing. Our first stop was a silk factory where silk brocade fabric is hand-loomed, as it has been done here for hundreds of years. We were able to see how they create the fabric on these huge wooden looms, operated by several people 10 feet in the air on top of the loom who feed in the silk and manipulate the strings to help create the pattern, and the main loom operator on the floor who moves the wooden dowels, and manipulates the foot pedals all while passing through the needle to create the finished fabric. It is a very intricate process. We also toured a museum to see examples of the patterns used by the emperors, and even saw a bolt of fabric created for the Ming dynasty that took three men five years to complete.


Next we visited the old city wall of Nanjing- built hundreds of years ago to protect the residents of the city of Nanjing from outside enemies. We climbed steps to the top of the wall, where we had an incredible view of the city and of a beautiful Buddhist monastery. It was a great place to let the kids run and run- it was uncrowded, and gave them plenty of room to play. YanFei loved running with her brothers, and while her gait is a bit unsteady- she has no problem chasing after them- and many times I had to send them to run after and keep up with her! I loved that we had a chance to visit this city wall since we didn’t go to Beijing and one of the things that the boys most want to see there is the Great Wall.











Some shots of our afternoon giggle-fest.





Later this afternoon Steve and I took all of the kids across the street to the sports park. It is another great place for the kids to run around and kick a soccer ball a bit instead of being cooped up in a hotel room. Of course we draw quite a bit of attention when we go somewhere like this. I try not to notice how many people just stop in their tracks to stare at us. Many others count how many kids we have, and show me their hand with 5 fingers up and point to the kids and then to me as in “all five are yours”? Or they point at Kyle and Spencer and ask if they are twins. Some come up to us because they want to practice their English, and others are just happy to stand close to us and smile at the kids giggles.

We will get a chance to experience this again tomorrow when we return to the Confucian Temple Marketplace to do some final shopping in Nanjing before we head on to Guangzhou on Saturday.