Jingdezhen

Northeast of Nanchang - 200km as the crow flies - between Poyang Hu and the Anhui border, JINGDEZHEN was producing ceramics at least two thousand years ago, and, despite half-hearted attempts to introduce new industries, ceramics remain the city's chief source of income. This is entirely due to local geography and national politics. Jingdezhen lies in a river valley rich not only in clay suitable for firing but also in the feldspar needed to turn it into porcelain . When the Ming rulers developed a taste for fine ceramics in the fourteenth century, Jingdezhen's location was conveniently close to the original court at Nanjing. An imperial kiln was built in 1369, and its wares became so highly regarded - "as white as jade, as thin as paper, as bright as a mirror, as tuneful as a bell" - that Jingdezhen retained official favour even after the Ming court shifted to Beijing fifty years later.

As demand grew, workshops experimented with new glazes and a classic range of decorative styles emerged: qinghua, blue and white; jihong, rainbow; doucai, a blue and white overglaze; and fencai, multi-coloured famille rose. The first examples reached Europe in the seventeenth century, and became so popular that the English word for China clay - kaolin - derives from its source at Gaoling , near Jingdezhen. Factories began to specialize in export ware shaped and decorated in European-approved forms, which reached the outside world via the booming Canton markets - the famous Nanking Cargo , comprising 150,000 pieces salvaged from the 1752 wreck of the Dutch vessel Geldermalsen and auctioned in 1986, was one such shipment. Foreign sales on this scale petered out after European ceramic technologies improved at the end of the eighteenth century, but Jingdezhen survived by sacrificing its earlier spirit of innovation for a more production-line mentality. After a low point early on in the twentieth century, the industry is once more on the move, and today Jingdezhen's scores of private and state-owned kilns employ some fifty thousand people.

Surrounded by paddy fields and tea terraces, Jingdezhen is a thoroughly scruffy city whose streets labour under the effects of severe pollution caused by the numerous porcelain factories dotted throughout the centre. The town is concentrated on the east bank of the Chang Jiang (not the actual Yangzi, but a lesser river of the same name). Zhushan Lu runs away from the river for a kilometre through the city centre to where roads converge at a small, grassless park, notable for its daytime croquet sessions and the sociable crowds that gather for a chat and a stroll every evening.

The only available vistas of Jingdezhen are from the three-storey Longzhu Ge (Dragon Pearl Pavilion), overlooking the river on Jiang Dong Lu. This is a pleasant construction in wood and orange tile along the lines of Hunan's Yueyang Tower. From the top, the town's smoggy horizon is liberally pierced by smokestacks of varying sizes, which fire up by late afternoon.

But porcelain, not views, is the reason Jingdezhen figures on tourist itineraries, and the town is geared towards selling. Shops around Zhushan Lu and adjoining streets are the best place to browse for a quick souvenir among an incredible amount of brightly coloured tack, from metre-high vases and ugly moulded statuettes of Buddhist and historical figures, down to porcelain pandas for the mantelpiece. The night market , which fills the park end of Zhushan Lu and Xincun Xi Lu with snack stalls and private sellers hawking factory rejects and the occasional older piece, is the place to pick up bargain-priced crockery, some of which is quite good. Serious buyers after bulk purchases should head over the river and catch bus #4 north to the city limits, where there's a kilometre of shops overflowing with stacks of giant urns, statues and teapots - it's a surreal sight, as are the Chinese visitors buying by the cartload.

Attractions in Jingdezhen

Neighboring Areas: Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, and Anhui provinces

Population: 1.49 million

Area: 5,248 sq km

Climate located in subtropical zone; featured the damp monsoon climate with 4 distinct seasons, sufficient sunlight and rainfall, long frost-free period

Mountains: Mt. Huaiyu

Rivers: Chang river, Le'an river