Bird's Tail Eves, Wooden Bowls and Environmentally Friendly Lacquer Preservative, In Ancient City.

When we got to the ancient Chinese city of Hongjiang we tried to find a teahouse where we could have some drinks, but were not successful so walked up to the site of the old city. The people living in these old houses were required to pay a rent to the Government, even though the houses appeared to have few if any of the facilities that would be taken for granted in the UK. Whilst we were walking up one of the narrow streets, Yin asked a woman standing in the doorway of her home in the ancient city, whether I might have a drink of water. She went into the house and soon came out again with a cup of hot water, and a stool for me to sit on! In some areas of the ancient city where there was a patch of sunlight, some of the old people gathered together to chat and some of them were busy knitting. One old lady sitting on a very low wooden stool outside a house door, when asked her age, said she was 89! I think she was quite happy sitting on her stool just watching the world pass by and having a chat with her neighbours.

Through one doorway of a house we saw some newly made wooden bowls of different sizes, that caught the eye of Yin, as he said the wood had been treated with the same natural preservative that he had been using on the furniture in his new apartment. We went inside to investigate and Yin bought one of the smaller bowls. The picture on the left shows the bowl being held by the craftsman who made it. Yin's apartment in Huaihua is certainly unique because on the roof he has built a small house built in the manner of a house of the Ming Dynasty. He designed the house himself, and also the furniture that has carvings in keeping with customs of the Qing Dynasty.

The wood preservative he uses on the furniture is made from the sap of the ''Lacquer Tree'' and the sap of the ''Tungoil Tree'', both trees grow naturally in the wild, so the process is environmentally friendly. This natural preservative was used during the Ming Dynasty and it is said not to be harmful to humans. The coating of this natural preservative becomes harder and darker with age and is very durable. Houses in the style of Yin's roof top house are currently rarely built in China, as people generally prefer ''modern'' designs in everything, houses, cars, clothes, etc.