Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific B777-300ER Business Class San Francisco to Hong Kong
Asian Adventure: Cathay Pacific Lounge Review: The Cabin at HKG
Asian Adventure: Cathay Dragon A330-300 Business Class Hong Kong to Beijing
Asian Adventure: Regent Beijing Hotel
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Dongcheng District
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Great Wall
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Run-ze Jade Garden
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Legend of Kung Fu
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Tiananmen Square
Asian Adventure: Beijing - The Forbidden City
Asian Adventure: Beijing - Hutong Tour via Rickshaw, Tea Tasting, Flying to Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Hotel Shangri-La Xi’an
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Qing Dynasty Terra Cotta Warriors
Asian Adventure: Xi’an - Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show
Asian Adventure: Xi’an Wrap-Up, Flying to Lhasa, Lhasa Home Visit
Asian Adventure: Shangri-La Hotel Lhasa
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Jokhang Temple and Barkhor Market
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Canggu Nunnery and Sera Monastery
Asian Adventure: Lhasa - Potala Palace
Asian Adventure: Leaving Lhasa and Flying to Chongqing
Asian Adventure: Viking Emerald
Asian Adventure: Shibaozhai Temple
Asian Adventure: Cruising the Three Gorges
Asian Adventure: Three Gorges Dam
Asian Adventure: Jingzhou City Walls Tour
Asian Adventure: Wuhan - Hubei Bells Performance and Provincial Museum
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Shanghai Museum
Asian Adventure: Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai
Asian Adventure: Shanghai - Old Shanghai and Yuyan Gardens
Asian Adventure: The New Otani Tokyo Hotel
Asian Adventure: Tokyo - City Tour
Asian Adventure: Mt. Fuji and Hakone Tour Returning by Shinkansen
Asian Adventure: ANA Suites Lounge Review, Tokyo Narita
Asian Adventure: All Nippon Airways B777-300ER First Class Tokyo Narita to Houston
We knew that sooner or later we'd visit at least one shop where Viking had worked a deal with the sales team and our lunch stop on the way back from the Great Wall was one of those shops. The Run-ze Jade Garden was actually quite large. On the ground floor they had people working the jade, some large pieces for sale and then an extensive showroom with lots of smaller pieces they were happy to sell to us.
The shop's guide spoke excellent English and told us a little bit about jade and then we were able to observe these folks actually working on polishing and shaping jade pieces.
Then we were directed down a hallway on the outside of the showroom that contained a number of large jade pieces. I didn't bother looking at their prices but some were quite beautiful in coloring and/or in their detail.
 |
| A Red Dragon |
 |
| An incredibly detailed bird |
 |
| A yellow dog (I think?) |
 |
| An absolutely massive ship |
 |
| A horse in white jade |
 |
| And a happy green Buddha |
I had thought all jade was green though I knew it could vary from very pale to dark green but I was not aware of all the other colors of jade. After walking through this hallway we were led upstairs to our first authentic Chinese meal of the trip. The dining room was huge as it was obviously used for tour group stops. In addition to our two Viking groups (Jack's group and Leo's group) there were groups from other tour companies there too.
The food was served family-style on a lazy susan, something we encountered a number of times on our tour. The menu was a little different from US Chinese restaurants I've been to but there was nothing I'd call "exotic".
At all our restaurant meals soft drinks, water and beer were included though we could only have two glasses of our beverage. Trying to be true to the region I used my chopsticks (except at breakfast) whenever possible and by the end of the trip was doing much better with them.
After lunch we went back down to the showroom and we were set loose upon the salespeople - or was it the other way around? While I appreciate that a salesperson wants the commission for my purchase, all I really wanted to do was look and I got a little annoyed by some of their persistence. Much of the merchandise is jewelry and since I rarely wear any jewelry I would have had to have seen something that would have knocked my socks off to buy it. Just before we were allowed into the showroom I took this photo but after that was informed they didn't want us taking pictures. This was not even half of the merchandise available so it was really quite a large space.
 |
| The Run-ze Jade Garden Showroom |
We enjoyed looking at the jade and some of us did make purchases before it was time to board the bus (in the rain) and drive to our next site (in the rain).
No comments:
Post a Comment