10th February, 2001.
Embroidery Pictures On Reversible Silk Screens. Young Chinese Boys By House Doors Watch Tourists. Bamboo Furniture In Chinese Home: Stall Holder Sells Grapes
August, 1987.
On our journey to the embroidery workshops we passed under the branches of the pavement trees which formed an arch over the road and if the sun had been out, then they would have provided welcome shade to the workers rebuilding one of the street houses, and to the stall holders
 selling their fruits and vegetables.The embroidery workshops were in a street which was bustling with activity and under the scrutiny of two young boys by one of the house doors, one boy sitting on a small chair on the pavement while his brother leant against the door post, and through the open door, their mother could be seen preparing food near a bamboo table. The versatile bamboo appeared to have innumerable uses; household furniture; coolie hats, fans, skips and panniers; builders� scaffolding and fishermen�s sanpans. Each item manufactured by craftsmen, although in a much shorter time than the embroidery we were to see.
The silk embroidery from Suzhou is renowned throughout China, and in the "China Towns" of many cities in the world, for the fineness of the silk threads used; for the merging shades of the colors and also for the reversible pictures and screens. The closeness of the work involved is a considerable strain on the eyesight of the embroiderers, so their work is done in short periods of ten to fifteen minutes,
 and in between, they must rest their eyes and massage the surrounding areas. The base material of silk, sometimes almost transparent, is stretched taut on adjustable frames before the seated workers, who must be regarded as artists in their own right, for we saw no sketches, pictures or diagrams from which they might be working.
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