Great Wall of China Exhibition @ Melb Museum

yesterday mum, dad nanna (dad's mum) and i went to the melb museum and looked at the Great Wall of China display. it wasnt overly large but there were some interesting video clips showing how they built and are restoring different parts of the wall, and lots of strange/ interesting artifacts unearthed from various digs in china. i think nanna was most intrigued by a 'death mask', which was a thin sheet of copper that they molded to the shape of the deceased's face, to form a copper mask.



i was most intrigued by huge panoramic photos of different scenes of the wall, discovering the shanhaiguan, the eastern most part of the wall which enters/ starts from the sea. it looks so beautiful in photos, i wonder what it will be like in real life. perhaps i will try to visit it. leo said maybe we could go for new year's, but i think it would be too cold. summer is the time to go for sure. i never thought about the great wall being near the sea!
and maybe i'd be able to walk on that part of the wall too, cos heights over water dont seem to bother me like heights over land do.



my other favourite thing from the exhibition (where i wasnt sure if we could take photos and hence didnt until right near the end) was one of the manchurian robes for the emperor.

u cant see it in my crappy photo but the stitching and embroidery was stunning. the array of different shades of sky blue threads used in just one small section were amazing. and the gold threads used to outline dragons and other symbols were not yellow in colour, they were actually gold, as in shiny shiny gold. i've never actually seen gold thread before.

here is the other photo i managed to take before mum told me off for taking photos.


oh, and i stealthily took this photo too, cos nanna fell in love with this bag depicting a 'great wall' scene and im under instruction to look for one next time im in china.

now if china had op-shops it mightn't be too difficult, but alas i believe china does not, though markets do sell a mix of trash and treasure half the time it seems, so we shall see how i go. perhaps touristy markets in beijing will have this kind of thing. this one's from the 50s or something and apparently bought in a hongkong market. so who knows, it's vintage,and touristy so perhaps a chinese market will still have this sort of thing, cants say ive ever really looked before, so we'll see.

funniest thing from the exhibition was a short film of various celebrities visits to the wall and the terrible melodramatic newsreader from the old news reports of the 80s. re: queen elizabeth's visit the newsreader man narrated: 'when we saw the sensible shoes...we knew she was serious!' i watched it 4 times through, and couldnt stop laughing. im not quite sure why it amuses me so much, i think its just the newsreaders voice ahaha. im gonna look for it on utube.

had tea at nannas house and she'd made an apple pie! so yumm!! apple pie and whipped cream. really really good! she gave me another scarf she knitted too. this one's peacock feathery wool, in a neautral sort of brown colour. quite nice. i think it will suit my cream coat rather nicely!



today i was originally going into the city, but plans got changed, so i am now postponing my trip until tomorrow, when i should get my uni subjects changed, and will maybe buy some hairdye. we'll see.

in the meantime i rediscovered my sequinny nail polish and so re-did my toes. all the glitters is not gold, it's silver! my favourite yay! ... but my toes themselves are so pink..alas, why??


thus ends another post.