Silk Factory Tour

On the way back from Zhu we stopped to tour a silk 'factory'. Although this was essentially a factory demonstration serving as a front for a silk show room, it was still fascinating to learn about the life cycle of the domestic silk worm an silk production. Silk worms are raised from eggs and kept in captivity until they form their silk cocoon, at which time 90% of them are 'baked' (killed with heat), extracted, and their silk is spun into thread using a mechanism that winds 9 silk strands into each thread. The other 10% are asked for their quota of 400 eggs each to keep the cycle going.

Our local factory guide made a compelling pitch, however we refrained from purchasing any silk blankets.