Porcelain City

And the holiday continues! On Sunday I left on a bus very early in the morning with my Chinese friend, Amy. We headed northeast for a few hours to a small famous city, Jingdezhen. It is the center of the porcelain making industry in China and probably the world.

First, riding buses long distances aren't exactly what you think. Highways seem pretty scarce, because the majority of people still don't have personal cars. That means the narrow roads are filled with bicycles, running children, people playing basketball, oxen pulling old wooden carts, chickens, mopeds, and gigantic trucks hauling coal or rock or chemicals. Farmers also spread out their hay and berries on the side of the road to dry, so the bus also has to swerve around that. And there are always interesting things to look at as we only go about 40 miles per hour at the fastest. On the way back to Nanchang yesterday, there was a car totally engulfed in flames. People just stared at it.

Anyway, we finally reached Jingdezhen, which is surrounded by little mountains. It reminded me of a mini-Nanchang, although the people seemed a lot more polite and friendly. And the city's only industry is making pottery. In Jingdezhen you either make pottery or sell it. There were countless stores and workshops dedicated to porcelain. Even the bridges and streets were lined with porcelain lamp posts.

There are also many rich Chinese from all over China, who drive in to buy expensive porcelain to take back home to Beijing or Shanghai or wherever. Supposedly there are also foreigners who sometimes come in tourist groups, but I never saw any. And I didn't look like I could really afford any expensive fine China, since I came rolling into town with only the clothes on my back--shorts and a T-shirt, which I wore for two days to try to be more "Chinese." So people didn't seem to expect me to buy anything, which was nice.

The visit was pretty successful in huge part to Amy's friend, Chen Long, who is also a student at Blue Sky, but doesn't speak any English. We got to visit his uncle's store and his family's store that each specialize in selling... porcelain! He was a great host and easy going guy, although he seemed overly fond of walking. We seriously trekked for several miles a day. My feet were swollen, but I loved walking everywhere and seeing everything.

And we sure saw everything - museums for imperial porcelain from the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, most every store in Jingdezhen that sold ceramics, and the huge compound of workshops in the hills that is still active. We saw tons of men and women making pottery. There were also countless kilns for firing the clay.

We had a wonderful time visiting someplace different. It seemed to be a fairly cultured city, although it was still certainly Chinese. Our hotel was really seedy and dirty, and when we ate hot noodles and meat baozi for breakfast on the street, there were chickens running right underneath our feet. We also counted the rats in the bushes for fun while we ate.

Thanks for reading about this little adventure! I really enjoyed it, especially getting to hang out with Amy, and seeing something different. Enjoy the pictures!