10th February, 2001
Coolie Hat Making; Women Work In Street With Thin Bamboo. Fire Hazard Of Wooden Workshops. Exposed Water Pipes On Streets: Good Omen Of Swallows' Nests
October, 1995
We took our leave of the families and walked back to the taxi first passing through a street which could well have been named, "Coolie Hat Making Street", as the coolie hats, in different stages of completion, were stacked up on the sides of the street and on the pavements.
 Women sitting on pavements were busy weaving the thin bamboo strips onto base frames of slightly thicker strips, producing an open and even trellis pattern. The crowns of completed hats were painted white with five yellow bars radiating from the top, which could well have been the logo for the area. An indicator of the climatic conditions of the town was the fact that the water pipes laid on the surface of the street, were uncovered and in some places lay across the street, so there seemed no danger of severe frosts in this region. If any of the pipes or joints did spring a leak then the people nearby would certainly have a good soaking !
An open fronted workshop held more stacks of unpainted coolie hats, with some of those which had been painted laid out on the pavement to dry.
 In the centre of the workshop was a small stand to which was fixed a many pointed tooth frame through which the split bamboo was repeatedly pulled to clean and pare the strips to an even width suitable for weaving. The workshop, like many other old buildings was constructed of wood and on the ceiling beams, swallows had built two nests, which was considered to be a good omen and always encouraged. I had seen similar nests on the beams of the living room of a friend's family home in Huang Jinao and he told me that it was always a welcome sight to see the swallows return to the nest building each year.
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