Wuhan

The 1st two photos are original bronze bells that were unearthed from the tomb of Yi. It is the largest bronze musical instrument ever discovered. With a set of bells of different sizes (the amount of bronze alloy controls the note on each bell), it can play various tones of the musical scale. There are about 3,000 ancient Chinese characters on the bells, describing the music and the owner of this instrument. In the Music Hall (last photo), musicians wearing ancient clothes play a replica of the Chime Bells.

Wuhan

Day trip to the Hubei Provincial History Museum, which is one of the best-known museums in China. It is located in Hubei, the provincial capital of Wuhan.

Wuhan

View of the banks of Wuhan.

Day 6 Wuhan

It's so humid that my camera keeps getting fogged up. Anyways, we're sailing into Wuhan today. I'm not sure what these guys were doing in the river in the 3rd photo. There were lots of large ships sailing past, I couldn't imagine they were in the water for relaxation. In the 5th photo there's lots of kites for sale on the banks and I then saw some in the sky!

Jingdezhen

1st: Someone was trying to be funny by putting his name tag on his shorts. The real funny part was the fact that this photo was the last time the name tag was seen. The next time James looked down, all that was left was a pin at the bottom of his shorts. 2nd: I was taking a photo of James, but at the same time I was documenting one of the ladies on our tour that liked to showcase her assets... 3rd: James did pretty well with the clay! He was pretending he was in the movie Ghost.

Jingdezhen

1st photo: My dad really wanted a picture with the huge ceramic vases, but each time we tried to take a photo someone would walk in the frame. I'm not sure how many tries it took, but this ended up being the best one. 2nd: hand painting designs onto the dried bowls.

Jingdezhen

Creating, perfecting, and glazing the ceramics. The almost finished pieces are then placed in the sun to dry. Little did James know that he was wearing his shirt just like the locals.

Jingdezhen

Examples of different styles of ceramics.

Day 5 Jingdezhen

Today we learned about the heritage of Chinese ceramics from past dynasties. We toured some ancient kilns and buildings, while enjoying the lovely forests, gardens and bamboo groves. Above, James was trying anything he could to get cool.