Sunday, July 25, 2010

Random Fun

Today my cousin and I went to random places in Hangzhou.  First we went to visit a ceramics museum that featured many old/ancient ceramics objects.  There wasn't a whole lot to see, but it was nice and cool inside =). 



Afterward we went to try throwing clay ourselves on a pottery wheel in a little DIY shop nearby.  My cousin had already tried it once, so I did it myself.  It's pretty challenging and took a lot of practice, but I kind of got the hang of it.  I wasn't really able to make anything really cool, but at one point I had what seemed to be a decent looking bowl.

We then let one of the experts make me a flower pot, and it turned out very nice.  It took a lot of skill, and I was quite impressed.  However, I won't be able to take it back to the US since it won't be fired in the kiln until August 30th. 

Nearby there was a small park that featured a traditional Ba Gua field.  For more information, see Ba gua.  Just like the diagram, there were essentially 3 compartments and 8 sections total, and a different crop was grown in each compartment, allowing for 24 different crops.  Traditionally this design was more for show, and usually used by the emperor to emphasize agriculture and for his own purposes as well.  It was pretty cool in my opinion.



This week is my last week of work.  Can't wait to come back home!

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