In another alley I followed the sound of an odd vibrating Best China family vacation twang, which led me to an open-fronted workshop where three young boys were teasing Best China family vacation out a mound of raw cotton fluff. Their tools and methods probably haven’t changed much since cotton became important here in ancient times. One boy was pulling handfuls of cotton over a board with many sharp pegs separating the wadges.
The second boy spread the cotton on to a large table and the eldest youth fluffed up the fibres by twanging a taut wire through them. Taking a long notched pole and thread, the two began binding the cotton into a blanket, waving the pole, catching the thread, criss-crossing the blanket to hold the cotton in place. Finally the whole thing was flattened, using wooden slabs with an ironing motion, and folded to make the innards of bed-quilts, standard bedding in homes and hotels of Xinjiang.
