Fishing Boats (but they look ceremonial to me)

There are pics today. We had three activities today (besides meals). This morning, we went to the Shanghai Museum. This is considered to be one of China’s top museums. They have an extensive collection in bronze, sculpture, ceramics, ancient costumes, jade, furniture, and coins. We couldn’t begin to see everything in half a day. Apparently I don’t have very good tastes in art. We had an audio guide. The more important pieces had numbers. One could punch the number in the audio guide and hear a short message about the piece. Most of the things that caught my eye didn’t rate numbers.

Back From Fishing (my favorite)

After lunch, we went to a silk place. They had people weaving silk rugs, sculpting 3-D silk rugs, people making silk bed comforters, and all manner of silk merchandise for sale. If you were expecting something silk from us when we return, you’re going to be disappointed. We’ve spent about $100 on everything so far, including the meals that were on our own. This definitely does not include the price of anything made of high quality silk.

After dinner, we will see Chinese Acrobats. We have seen them twice in Baltimore. We’re looking forward to a great show tonight.

River Scene

Stone Lion with way cool eyes

Bodhisattva

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Bells of Marquis Su of Jin (950 BCE)

They say these bells were in tune when cast. That’s precision casting! The bells were played by striking them with a wooden mallet. The music sounds like Star Trek’s Betazoid dinner music. Each bell had two tones, depending on where it was struck. the round protrusions controlled the resonance. That’s some pretty sophisticated technology for 3,000 years ago. By 1800 AD, the Chinese had lost all of this technology. They could barely cast simple bronze statues of the zodiac animals for the Emperor’s summer palace.