Beijing: Silk Carpets & Summer Palace

---

September 27th 2012
Sept. 27 We're starting to get used to lima beans, bok choy and sweet potatoes at breakfast. As long as I also get my beloved cereal I'm happy! Today we started with (after the obligatory hour-long traffic tie-up) a factory tour, our second, actually. Yesterday we went to a cloisonne factory (enamel painted onto copper vessels), and today a silk carpet factory with the wonderful name of ... read more

Asia » China » Beijing

---

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more