As China progresses, the inevitable happens to its ancient crafts. Here in Zhejiang Province , old towns producing traditional crafted silk are fast dying off or have turned into a tourist circus attraction. Zhejiant is where the art of Silk crafting is invented. These old towns grow the mulberry orchards, tender to the delicate mulberry silk worms, painstakingly harvesting silk from these worms in community factories. The most famous are the Jili silk factories which have probably died by the time you write this.
With closing of silk factories in these villages, many tourists like me started invading these places and sneaking images of the dying factory before getting chased out for not paying the tourist entry tax. Photography is much frown upon even if they do bring bus loads of tourists to these places.
A sad fate for high quality silk artisans, being killed off. Taking over from it, the inferior silk that we will left with and probably be educated with in the future.
How I wish I have gotten the silk stuffed qulits!
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