From: Wung, Lihuang Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 7:50 PM To: (Contact List) Subject: Fuzhou Ting Status 10-22-10 Attachments: Photos 10-18-10 to 10-22-10.pdf  Fuzhou Ting Status Report of October 22, 2010: Boring. That’s probably how you would categorize how the week has gone by, if you are one of those interested and caring citizens who come by and check on the progress of the construction on a daily basis, because the building has not been “growing” much. Well, the skeleton may have remained relatively calm, quite a few muscles have been pumped up and new ones added. Masons continued to lay wall panels and gutter stones around the concrete platform of the Ting. Roofers laid additional weather protection materials on the 11 ridges on the roof. Construction of the first ridge on one of the lower roofs began, using the Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (AAC). AAC looks like a block of concrete, but is light enough that it floats. Blocks can be thin-set, adhesive-mortared together, or carved to shape. It can be worked with regular tools (drilled, sawn, routered, sanded, rasped), and can be screwed with the same thin long lag-bolts that are used for wood framing. AAC is not foreign to the Fuzhou delegation. They have seen a lot of applications of it back home; in fact, they call it Doufu Zhuan (Doufu = tofu; Zhuan = bricks), or Tofu Blocks, for its white color and softness (relatively speaking, of course). The AAC ridges will eventually be coated with Thorosal sealant and painted with the cement and ash mix supplied by the Chinese. And, our carpenters? Well, they spent a whole day beating the beauty into the beast. They were struggling with the Meiren Kao 美人靠 (Meiren = beautiful lady; Kao = to lean on), or the Beauty’s Bench. It is believed that in ancient China, unmarried girls were not allowed to be exposed to or socialized with the world outside of their households. So, for those who could afford them, benches with backs that were beautifully curved and decorated would be placed on the patios of their mansions to provide an opportunity for the girls to rest and lean on and take a peek into the outside world, hence the term “Beautiful Lady’s To-Lean-on.” Installation of the Beauty’s Benches has been a major source of conversation on the site, as well as some light humor. According to the research by Scott Beard, our structural engineer, little did any of us know that the benches were the most technically complicated portion of the entire project. The typical American approach to benches is, “we’ll just toss them in at the end, no problem”. The connections for these special benches are so technically challenging, that over in China, only a select subset of an erection crew is allowed to work on them. Only the workers that have proven themselves technically capable of the meticulous details and fine craftsmanship that these require. So, our carpenters did get stuck on the first “lady” on the first day, and almost turned the Beauty into the Beast. But they learned fast, and were able to tame the other three “ladies” the next day.

In addition to the Beauty’s Benches, other items installed included the Gualuo 挂落(four hanging fascia pieces), the Queti 雀替(four decorated corbel brackets), the Paibian 牌匾(two plaques engraved with the calligraphy of “Fuzhou Ting”), and the Shizi 狮子 (two stone lions – a male and a female with a cub). Compared to the Beauty’s Benches, they were a bowl of rice (O.K., that’s my Chinese version of “a piece of cake”). Next week will be a very busy week, because the Fuzhou Delegation is returning to China on October 28. We will not be able to complete the project before they return, but will be fairly far along. Stay tuned. Lihuang Wung Community and Economic Development Department 747 Market Street, Room 1036 Tacoma, WA 98402 (253) 591-5682 (Office) (253) 324-8638 (Cell)