On the silk road

摘要

Chris holland kicks a bucket of rotten fruit. "It smells like death in here," he says cheerfully as a cloud of tiny fruit flies swarms up to its fate. We're inside a glasshouse that would have any arachnophobe quaking. As many as 100 giant spiders are hanging from the ceiling, lurking on branches and lolling about on enormous webs. With their legs outstretched, they are the size of an adult's palm, their bodies the size of your thumb. Littering the webs are remnants of larger meals - the sucked-out husks of bluebottles.