The City of Suzhou

Tour Day 16: Sunday, May 6, 2001

Embroidery Research Institute

Irises Since seeing the institute on the itinerary before booking the tour, I had a wish to bring some of the embroidery home. But, it is too expensive for all but the serious collector. Most of the work has two good sides, that is, it is displayable on both sides. And most pieces in the store are mounted so that is easy to do.

Tiger

Beautiful Bird Composition In Progress

In the store, they even had examples of pieces with different designs on each side!
And this embroidery is done on sheer silk fabric, so they cannot put two pieces together to be represented as one embroidery.

The Design Is Woven Into This Piece.

Our correspondent, a Suzhou native, Gavin Wang, sent us this link to the Web site of the Embroidery Research Institute. The pictures are small, but the site is worth the side trip.

The Sheraton Hotel is something to see. Built like an old Chinese Palace, it has beautiful gardens within the surrounding walls. We'll stop the hotel before we visit North Temple Pagoda on our way out of town.

Click any image for the next page.