many years ago there lived in hangzhou a girl called aqiao. one winter morning she walked into a valley. to her surprise， she found herself in a different world.

　　there were rows of white houses with mulbery trees in front of them. many ladies in white were singing and picking the leaves from the trees. they fed the leaves to little silkworms. aqiao learned how to reel silk and how to dye it.

　　when she returned home， she began to raise silkworms and taught her neighbours how to do it. it was said that this was how people started to raise silkworms in china.