China stone diary

This morning we met Rayliegh who has been arranging the cutting at the factory to make my kerbstone. Once again the factory was at least a two hour drive in the same direction. What is amazing however, was the huge scale of quarrying going on in the area. Everywhere you look there is stone in different stages of preparation. Every truck seems to be moving stone, every available piece of ground, covered with blocks of the stuff.

The factory we stopped at was like very many we had seen along the road, but once inside I was surprised by how organised it appeared to be. Under an expansive roofed building with open sides, areas were separated off for different processes. At one end of the building, massive blocks of stone were gradually being hoisted onto the saw beds – including eventually the granite block we brought down the mountainside to cut my kerbstone from. Looking towards the other end of the building I could see many of the finished products. This was not the kind of sweat shop image I imagined, but something far more efficient with almost everyone I saw wearing safety gear.

Talking to Kevin on the way back to the hotel he told me that being a British company and a prime market for Chinese stone, they could insist on very high safety standards throughout the process and on all staff being of legal working age. Another reason why he and his staff visit the quarries and factories on such a regular basis.

Destination- Bristol – n51-27-466
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