Yida Silk Workshop 3

Known as “the town of silk”, Wuzhen has a long history of silkworm breeding. The local villagers live on silkworm breeding and making silk, and Wuzhen becomes a silk industry center among towns nearby. As early as 4000 years ago, silkworm breading was Wuzhen people’s livelihood. Yida Silk Workshop was a folk workshop for silkworm breeding, mulberry growing, reeling silk, making silk and making brocade. It is now a scenic spot showcasing sericulture in the south of Yangtze River delta. Yida Silk Workshop was founded by a businessman Shen Yongchang in the first year of Guangxu Regime of Qing Dynasty (the year of 1875). At the beginning, the workshop was specialized in purchasing silk from local residents, gradually it expanded its business to silk workshop, and it reached the peak time when his son Shen Xuewen invented jacquard loom. In the middle of the gate of the workshop is the name “Yida Silk Workshop” and two sides reading “sunshine in spring and in autumn” which means the silk in spring and autumn is of the highest quality.