Prior to traveling to China, I had heard about some ridiculous shopping excursions that all of the tours bring you to. Unfortunately, this happened to us as well and throughout our 4 day trip to Beijing, we were brought to a Jade factory, a Pearl factory, a Silk Factory, a Cloisonne Factory, a tea place and a Chinese medicine place. I do understand the point, as many tour guides make commissions by bringing groups to these places, however it’s unfortunate that they don’t always consider the guest’s interest and the fact that not every tourist wants to go shopping for local products.
Because the tour we were on turned out to be a small 3 person tour, it wasn’t quite as bad as I was thinking. We were fortunate in that we were such a small group that we didn’t have to wait too long at each place for people to finish browsing around.
Our very first stop was the Jade Factory and this place definitely felt like a tourist trap. Stall after stall was lined with jade products. In the end, I actually ended up purchasing a little display and having my name carved into it. It wasn’t too expensive and I thought I could use a souvenir.
It was interesting because aside from the shopping area where all of the products were displayed, there was also an area off to the side where you could see employees working on jade pieces. The work area didn’t look too wonderful, but yet it was proudly displayed.
Around lunch time, we were dropped off at the Cloisonne Factory for lunch. Cloisonne is a technique associated with decorating metal and there was a great deal of beautiful, meticulously crafted pieces on display. In particular, the vases were outstanding. As we were having lunch here, we were free to browse around after we had our meal, but thankfully we didn’t have to spend too much time here.
The next day, we were taken to a Pearl Factory and this was the first factory where there were actually English speaking guides that provided a private tour of the place and showed us how everything worked. It was quite interesting watching our guide describe how pearls were extracted and turned into beautiful jewelry.
Our last factory tour was of the Silk Factory. Again, an English speaking guide took us through the factory and showed us how silk products were produced. I learned that it was extremely hard work when we each got to participate in helping the employees spread the silk. At the end, I remember thinking that I would never complain about the costs of silk products every again.
Overall, we were very lucky because we were on a very small tour, so each of these factory tours didn’t last too long. If we were part of a larger group, I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed having to visit these factories.
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