It is impossible to describe, in one blog post, all we saw when we visited China. So it's a good thing I'm limited here to photos containing the color yellow, because we saw everything. Well, it felt like everything. China is an immense country. The only countries in the world larger than China are Russia, Canada and the USA. So you know we didn't see everything. We did, however, see a lot. Our cruise-tour with Viking River Cruises covered a lot of territory, a lot of history, and a lot of culture -- three things China possesses in abundance. Right now, for Mellow Yellow Monday, I'd like to share three kinds of Chinese art with you. Before this trip, we knew about Chinese jade carvings, of course, and we even knew about Chinese silk carpets. We didn't, however, know the Chinese have perfected needlework and made it an art form. At first glance, the picture of the two dancing cranes appears to be a painting. Close up, the picture of the mischievous fox shows this art for what it is, incredibly fine silk (a lot of it yellow) worked with a delicate needle. In the third picture, we see a large silk carpet on the wall of a carpet factory. In front of it are baskets and jars of dye, and I think the second from the right might be the yellow dye, but I don't really know. I do know a yellow-gold wall forms a spectacular background for the carving of birds and flowers in black and white jade.
