Yida Silk Workshop
Renowned as “the land of silk,” Wuzhen is one of China’s most famous centers of silk production.
Founded in 1875, Yida Silk Workshop has experienced many ups and downs in the past one and a half centuries. Today’s Yida has developed into a vertically integrated business, owning the entire silk production process, from planting mulberry trees, to raising silk worms, to silk reeling, to silk spinning and finally silk weaving.
In 1923, the second generation ownership at Yida invented the brocade weaving machine, known as the Dahualuo Machine, with more than 2,000 components and able to complete more than 100 processes.
From pattern making to finished product, it took more than 100 days to finish a piece of brocade on the machine. As the weaving process was highly complicated, and completely dependent on manual labor, daily output was limited to 5 or 6 centimeters. That is why the saying “an inch of brocade is worth an inch of gold” came into being. Both durable and elegant, the brocade produced in Wuzhen combines traditional Chinese weaving techniques with the local brocade weaving technology. The result is “Wuzhen Brocade”, the emperor’s silk.
The production area of Yida demonstrates the complete process of silk manufacturing, from planting mulberry trees, to collecting cocoons, to peeling and weaving. Here visitors can view decades-old mulberry trees growing along the river, watch silk worms growing and spinning their cocoons, try reeling silk themselves on antique machinery, and appreciate some of the beautiful finished silk works on display (some are even considered national treasures). Right here in Wuzhen one stands in front of the long history of Chinese silk culture.
