Beijing - Silk Factory

One of our fun (shopping) stops was to the Silk Factory.  Of course, their main goal was to sell us stuff (mission accomplished), but we did learn a lot about the silk making processes as well as have some fun.

The stages of a silk worm, from larva to butterfly.

The cocoon is what the silk is made from.  We are feeling some of the cocoon silk.

These are the machines that uncoil the cocoons to harvest the silk.  Several cocoons are unwound at the same time to make the silk thread.

Not all of the cocoons can be unwound by machine.  Certain ones are done by hand.

The cocoon is stretched over this piece of wood individually.

After a number of cocoons are unwound, the stretch it.  Here are the girls helping stretch the unwound silk cocoons.

Then taken from what we stretch, and stretched across a double bed size.  Pretty amazing how it stretches without breaking ... when done correctly.

A nice soft silk bed spread (minus the fancy covering).

And pictures of the fancy silk products.