Our last stop was Shanghai. In the morning we went to the museum which features Chinese furniture, calligraphy, art, porcelain, silver, etc. We all opted for less time there so we would have more time in a local market that afternoon.
Just before lunch we went to a silk factory which was fascinating. Single cocoons yield a single strand of silk. Cocoons are soaked in boiling them cool water. About 5 at a time bob in the water as the strand of silk is caught into a bobbin and spun together. The worm does not fare so well. Double cocoons have two strands already woven together so this silk is removed and stretched. It is then layered with many others until it makes enough batting for the filling for a comforter. We bought one for us and one for Alisha.
After lunch we skipped the Rodeo Drive type market and headed for the Yuan Garden market which is just huge and full of all kinds of stuff. We made good use of our time as this was our last opportunity to buy things other than the airport.
That evening we attended an acrobatics show which is just impossible to describe. Absolutely the most amazing display of gymnastics and coordination any of us had ever seen.
Sadly, the day came to leave. We flew from Shanghai to Beijing where we expected to have a 3 hour layover. We had 15 minutes. The plane was late and then the bureaucracy took way longer than anyone expected or than it should have! Flight home was uneventful and then a 7 hour layover in San Francisco where we each spread out and slept. Plane to Portland was also a little late but not too bad and we arrived home exhausted.
Now we are trying to recover from jet lag which has not been easy. We have heard it can easily take two weeks which looks like a definite possibility as I write this one week later.
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