My parents are back in Green Bay now. It was a nice visit. Katie (probably) visited a McDonalds for the first time and played in the tubes with Kris. She went to church with us for the first time on Saturday evening. She was quite well behaved. I think she was taking it all in - I have no illusions that the church quiet will continue. Now we are watching the Super Bowl and its associated commercials. Kris thinks "The Who" is old, but Katie occasionally dances to it. We also have a fire in the fireplace for the first time since we have been back.Anyway, the first full day in Beijing was a very busy one with lots of sightseeing and culture to take in. We started out at a cloisonne factory. The process to produce this type of artwork is quite complicated, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloisonn%C3%A9. Roughly what happens is a copper base has a wire pattern fastened to it, and then an enamel powder slurry is filled into the the areas between the wires using eyedroppers. The art is heated in an oven to fuse the enamel, and eventually the piece is polished. Why the factory is so cold in the winter (even in the non-furnace area) escapes our understanding. Some of the pieces in the store associated with the factory were quite expensive: the one in the picture with Kris was over a million yuan (there are about 6 or 7 yuan per US dollar). We got a few, much less expensive, pieces.
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