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7341799
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Mrs. Ford and Susan at a Peking Carpet Factory [Pool Report]
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document
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1
Source metadata
id
7341799
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Mrs. Ford and Susan at a Peking Carpet Factory [Pool Report]
citationUrl
collections
White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
subjects
China
Ford, Betty, 1918-2011
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7341799
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item
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day
4
logicalDate
1975-12-04
month
12
year
1975
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description
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nara-archive
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1
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0
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document
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e2b4f9e8fc126497
ocrText
Digitized from Box 18 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
December 4, 1975
POOL REPORT
Mrs. Ford and Susan at Carpet Factory
When Mrs. Ford and Susan arrived (in separate cars) at Peking No. 1 carpet
factory, Sheila Weidenfeld said Susan had just come from an acupuncture
demonstration, where she saw an ovarian cyst removed from a 17-year-old
woman, a tooth removed from a 36-year-old man, and a tooth removed from
an 8-year-old boy. She was there from roughly 8:45 am to about 10:25 am
when she arrived at the carpet factory.
Mrs. Ford and Susan started off their tour of the carpet factory with tea and
a briefing, seated at a long table covered with embroidered white cloth, with
a picture of Chairman Mao looking down on them. They toured a design room,
three loom rooms, a cutting room, and a display room where carpets for
export (mainly to Europe) were shown. Mrs. Ford asked questions, Susan took
pictures.
The cutting room is where the workers cut the wool pile to edge the intricate
designs, and thus make the birds, fish, flowers and what-have-you stand out.
At one point Mrs. Ford's head became tangled in strands of yarn from a
loom and she said, "Maybe I'll get woven into the carpet." At another point
she and Susan knelt and admired & carpet on the floor, and Mrs. Ford said, "Ol₂
my, that would wear a long time."
According to hand-outs, the Peking No. 1 carpet factory has 1500 workers,
60% of them women. It takes seven people working five months to produce a
rug 128-feet square. The factory produces tapestries as well as carpets.
They're all lovely.
Philomena Jurey
Voice of America
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