Cloisonne & I didn't get hit by a bus
We took a breif tour of a Cloisonne workshop yesterday & I still can't pronounce it. It was fascinating, they are pottery and other decorations made out of copper. They first create the shape of the piece, this gentleman was creating a vase.
Then they glue on tiny shaped wires to create the design.
Then they add enamel color and fill the spaces between the wires, it takes several days to do this since each layer needs to dry before the next.
Then it is fired, litterally. This makes it hard and shiny.
After polishing they use a secret process to add gold to the copper so that it will not rust. There is a lot of Cloissonne in the forbidden city that we will get to see tomorrow. These were taken in the show room there was a lot of very beautiful things.
Jim blogged about the driver we had but I don't think he told you that all the drivers were like that. I was surprised that we only saw one accident yesterday. Pedestrians are to watch out for themselves. Jim and I got back to the hotel yesterday and we needed to go get some water before we cracked open the $8 bottle in our room. Our guide showed us where the pedestrian market was and where a convince store was. Both were on the opposite side of the street as our hotel. I really thought the $8 bottle was looking good but Jim thought we would be fine. So out we went.
We went headed to the stop light where they have lights for walkers but apparently those are just like the lines on the road mere suggestions. We waited for the light to turn green and the cars stopped, great, We started to cross. We were fine until we got to the place where the people from the cross street were turning left and right. Successfully we dodged a taxi and I was pumped and started back across when I looked up and saw a bus turning left on to our street. HOLY CRAP scary, I screamed said BUS! Jim wanted to wait and I wanted to run and the fact that we were hold on to each other made a very brief tug of war. But my flight response won out and we ran, dodged another taxi and made it to the other side alive! Our cross back across the street was a little less adventful the biggest thing that almost hit us then was a motorized scooter.
The pedestrian street was very fun, it was full of very high end shopping like Cartier and Channel and off the side streets there were street vendor that wanted to sell us all sorts of souvenirs. We had our first McDonalds experience where we ordered by pointing. I think the only English word the gal knew was menu and OK, I was awesome.
Cora in McDonalds, Beijing! |
I am truly enjoying everything about this place. I can not wait for each day and every day we get closer and closer to Chloe! I am nervous but excited about that day but I am so glad we had a couple of days to get used to being in China before getting her.
Ok it is off to breakfast! Yum, I love breakfast here, I am going to have a coffee today the first since we left on Tuesday.
Comments
It sounds like a lot of fun.
Hugz..
can't wait to see more photos..
xoxo enjoy every minute that you can!
Alyzabeth's Mommy
Thanks for keeping us up to date! Make sure you sleep and sleep!! You will need it.... : ). It took us a while to get Jon Jon to sleep every night...
Prays and hugs for all three of you!
Jody
We had to play frogger across a highway to get the babies and then walk back across to the hotel. Scary stuff!!!!