TuzigootJournal: Embroidery and Chairman Mao

Dec. 14 – More Exploring Changsha

A group excursion the morning of Dec. 14 took us to an embroidery factory. Many examples of impressively large, complex, and beautifu

l silk embroidery. Here are a few examples. Some of the largest pieces took one person eight years, eight hours/day, of work! Chairman Mao, below, is embroidery, not a photo or a painting. When you look up close you see hundred of stitches running in seemingly random directions to create the impression you see.

After we got back to the hotel, the Easterling family ventured out on a walking excursion to KFC – about a 15 min. walk. (A couple of people wrote us about our previous reports on Outback, McDonald’s, and Monday Night Football and wondered if we were really in China. Now we can add KFC to our exotic dining-out list.) Nice lady brought us an illustrated menu so we could point at the items we wanted.

Turned out to be a big Chairman Mao day. This province, Hunan, is his home province. The guidebook I read before we left mentioned the Quingshui Tang, a park containing Mao’s former home in Changsha and the first local Communist Party offices. The Hunan branch of the CPC was created in 1921 and Mao Zedong was appointed secretary. After lunch, I headed for Quingshui Tang while the rest returned to the hotel.

The park includes a large (40 ft.) aluminum statue of Mao and the building that served as party offices and home for Mr. and (the second) Mrs. Zedong back in 1921.

The sky behind Mao is about as blue as we saw here all week, and just looks that way because the camera focus is up. At street level, the view is more smoggy, as in the other picture. This was the mildest, sunniest day we’ve seen here in Changsha.

This large building in the park, which I think is a museum, looked pretty imposing, so I decided not to go in.

My next goal was the Xiangjiang River and the Juzizhou Bridge across it (these are the names in the map provided by the hotel; my US guidebook had other names). Turned out to be quite a walk (all told I was out about 2.5 hrs., so probably about six miles total walking). Of course, this is one of the rivers Mao swam. You’re looking at about half of the river in this picture because that far bank is an island.

Saw lots of interesting people and street scenes on my trek, but tried not to gawk and didn’t take pictures. Nevertheless, here’s a shot of the back end of a heavily loaded bicycle. The proprietor is trying to tie things on more securely.