Since I had a on-line meeting with colleagues in China earlier tonight I am thinking of a Chinese Fortress that I built recently with Ankerstein.

I first saw this building in Jena, Germany when I first discovered Ankerstein. The builders were building with Set 24. At the time in 2004 it was the most recent set added since the re-introduction of Ankerstein.

Finally this year I am building with Set 24. During the Covid time I have slowly been building through all the sets in the series.

This building is know as Chinesische Festung, or Chinese Fortress.

The fortress is really large and takes up a lot of space on the table. I now have to be careful how I position the buildings on the table to make sure I have enough room and can reach everything.

I also have to be careful what is in the surroundings as my background for taking pictures is not always big enough now.

Maybe I can wait another year for the Hobby Lobby to open here in town or perhaps just go visit the other craft store.

This one was a bit tricky to build, and I had to be careful. The walls were not very sturdy as they didn’t have the mass to hold together quite as well. Little bumps to the table would often cause stones to fall.

I still have five sets of stones to build through before reaching the end of the series. Will I keep with it to the end? It may depend on how long I work from home, or when I start traveling again.

Steven