Visiting the Porcelain City Jingdezhen

Known as the "porcelain city" since the Song dynasty, Jingdezhen has a long history of over 1700 years of porcelain making. It is designated one of the first 24 famous Chinese cities of historical and cultural interests and a first-rate city opening to the foreigners by China’s State Council.

Jingdezhen got its present name from the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279) when blue and white porcelain was produced in this area. It crouches on the south of the Yangtze River as a “Powerful Town on the South of the Yangtze River", and was listed with Foshan in Guangdong Province, Hankou in Hubei Province, and Zhuxianzhen in Henan Province as the four famous towns in Chinese history. As the world-famed ceramic capital, Jingdezhen City has a long history of ceramics making and a rich cultural heritage. In accordance with the historical records, “Xinping (as the city was known as then) began to make pottery in Han Dynasty”. It is evident that pottery was first made in Jingdezhen in Han Dynasty.



In the first year in Jingde Reign of Song Dynasty (1004), the royal court decreed the city made porcelain wares for imperial use with the wording “Made during the Jingde Reign” printed on the bottom of every piece. Hence the city got its name “Jingdezhen”. From Yuan Dynasty to Ming and Qing Dynasty, emperors sent their officials to Jingdezhen to supervise the manufacture of royal porcelain. They set up the Porcelain Office and built the royal kiln, which produced many wonderful ceramic articles. Among them were those particularly famous for the four classic decorations: blue and white, famille rose, rice-pattern and color glaze. Jingdezhen international ceramics festival is an important festival which has already taken place more than 10 times since 1990. It plays an important role in the international ceramics scene, during which you may appreciate the most remarkable porcelains.



Apart from the best-known porcelains, there has been found more than 30 ceramics historical ruins in Jingdezhen, such as the famous ancient ceramic material producing area --Kaolin, which the worldly name of the clay of producing porcelain Kaolin was named' after, the ruin of Hutian ancient kiln, the ruin of the royal kilns in the Ming and Qing Dynasty and so on, which are, ranked in the National and Provincial Historical Relic's Protection Units, have the inference and attraction over the world.



In Jingdezhen, there are many landscapes and sights, such as perfectly preserved the clusters of Ming and Qing Buildings, the houses group of the Anhui style, the ancient play stage, the ancient County Office in Fuliang which is known as the Number One in the south of the Yangtze River and the second in China. Jingdezhen is also the area of glory revolutionary heritage, the famous Reorganization of the New Fourth Army ever happened in Yaoli town in Fuliang, Zhongpu Town in Leping was the cradle of the Red Tenth Army.

All in all, if you love porcelains and Chinese culture, spending a day in a porcelain factory will be rewarding.