My hubby, daughter and I spent 7 days in China. We visited Hangzhou, Shanghai and Yiwu. The main aim of the trip was to explore places where I could buy good quality products for my jewelry business. My best buy was in Yiwu, at the International Trade City, where I managed to get really nice boxes to pack my jewelry in. I have been having a bit of a problem packing my larger neck pieces. Of course this meant I had to order in bulk, which I did, and they took only 4 days to arrive after we got back to Singapore! Thanks to our friend's contact we were able to get things sorted out quite quickly.
In Yiwu, my friend's old college classmate (who is now a government official) extended hospitality to us by inviting us to dinner. As a final dish, we were served with an ox head, complete with horns and teeth! The meat was tender and tasty.
At the International Trade City District One in Yiwu, we managed to find a wholesale freshwater pearl supplier. I found nice pearls with good prices and bought some supplies to bring home. As it is with trade markets, everything has to be bought in bulk so I spent two days choosing my pearls!
Hangzhou is famous for its silk and tea. We managed to visit the National Silk Museum and also went for their Long Jie Green Tea tasting. The food was also quite good and below is a photo of 3-layer pork braised in soy sauce and served with braised bamboo shoots. The presentation was really nice as you can see.
Well, for the next few weeks I will be getting my new inventory done, photographs taken, writing descriptions and then waiting for my new website to be ready. I will also be back to designing my larger and more artistic pieces.
I will still be taking custom orders but the waiting time will now be 6-8 weeks for regular items so do plan ahead if you want to order something special for yourself or your loved ones. Neck pieces and cuffs will take longer. As usual if you see anything you like on the blog and would like to buy it, do let me know.
