[suzannelowrie]

I'm back from Zhuji- I really liked that green valley ringed by forested mountains. Fertile, irrigated, Zhuji was always a good place to be and now with pearl ponds and the Munsingware factories, it is even better. I was sent to the "famous" restaurant KFC and ate there with my driver. KFC was packed with middle class Chinese drinking honey tangerine soda and buying combos. At a factory, I was told that the FWP were dipped in "Japanese water" to achieve a high shine. The factory manager couldn't believe that anyone (Jeremy) would offer a 90-day money-back guarantee because of the danger of pearls being damaged or losing their luster. The sorting floors are 25C-26C and the director's office is 24C. The AC is for the people, not the pearls, yet there is awareness (not operationalized) that heat and dry weather damage the pearls. I asked them to look at Jeremy's website and what they liked the most was the temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled room for the pearls. They would implement a storage room like that if they thought the pearls would benefit. They just don't know what temperature and what humidity and how to derive the numbers. I chose two strands carefully just for my granddaughters out of an AAA+ bag and the manager said "no good, no good" and rolled pearls around until she found perfect rounds. So I have a looong way to go in pearl sorting. White gold clasps with pearls was a clear preference. They looked at me with pity when I pulled out 22K yellow gold clasps from Thailand and gave me that sort of look that says "tacky trash" covered up by tactful mumbling and staring out the window at nothing at all. Hey, the latino population thinks that white gold is crummy so the Zhuji people helped me a lot-- what is beautiful is culturally derived---so having a wide inventory of clasps is culturally better (although expensive). If anyone knows what "Japanese water" is and what are the best temperatures and humidities for storing pearls, please let me know. I'll email the info to the factory managers that I met. I'll go back happily to Zhuji and HK. I really really liked the Chinese and respected their desire to prosper. But, I'm an economist and I find people who claw their way up from poverty to be very very attractive.