A Handbaaaaaaaag?????

Why are women’s handbags so badly designed? Its a great concept, a receptacle for all your bits and bobs, but I cant stand the ones that hook over your arm (like The Queen has, though goodness knows what she keeps in it), and over one shoulder is back for your posture, while a rucksack is [...]

Jade and Pearl

I had the real pleasure last week of collecting a piece of jewelery that I had designed and commissioned myself.  While in China I’d acquired a couple of small pieces of jade, and a few freshwater pearls.  Intrinsically they had very little value, but I was keen to have them incorporated into a piece of [...]

Xi’an

The city which is used as “base camp” for the trip to see the Terracotta Warriors is Xi’an, which means Peace in the West. It was a former Imperial capital, between 1,000 BC and 1,000 AD, including the prolific and culturally rich Tang dynasty. Much of its historical buildings are well preserved, from the impressive [...]

Beijing’s Olympic Village

It was so good in China to be able to see the very very old as well as the brand spanking new.  I’m a huge fan of modern architecture, and one of the highlights of last year’s Olympics had been marveling at the structures that had been erected for the event.  So I was thrilled [...]

Summer Palace

A visit to popular Summer Palace, Beijing

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven, Tiantan, is a classic Ming-dynasty building, a picture in stone of ancient Chinese cosmogony,is a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design. Well, that’s what my guidebook says anyway. I was very taken by the huge numbers of locals out doing a variety of exercises in the grounds: retirement age is quite [...]

Forbidden City, Beijing

We’d lost a bit of time in getting here, not least due to Beijing’s notorious traffic congestion, and so our meander through the succession of colourful rooms and marvellous treasures was speedier than such riches really warranted. But my what a glorious building. We’d started at the back entrance, and worked our way forward until [...]

The Great Wall

It’s 4,000 miles long, but no, you can’t see it from space. But you can see the moon from here, if the conditions are right! Conditions were…well, rather misty on our visit. But it was the last site we visited in China, so the weather had to be endured, and actually, the mistiness probably adds [...]

Terracotta Warriors

The impressive tomb of Emperor Qin and his hand crafted clay men.

Making silk

making silk in Shanghai