National Week: Jingdezhen

The conclusion of my National Week series.  After this I will finally get back to writing about Shanghai!

The bus dropped us off at the outskirts of Jingdezhen and immediately it was apparent that this was a city centered around porcelain.  Stepping off the bus, we saw a few china shops and I figured that it was probably to lull tourists into buying last minute souvenirs.  Little did I know that this was the first of many china shops that I would see in my short stay in the city.

Having had multiple issues with transportation, we were not taking any chances with getting tickets back to Shanghai.  After getting off the bus, we immediately took a taxi to the bus station, which brought us to the heart of downtown Jingdezhen.  What struck me the most about the downtown area was not the overwhelming amount of china shops but how bad the air quality was.  For a city that was much smaller than Shanghai in both size and population, the smog in Jingdezhen was on a whole other level of terrible. 

We successfully acquired our bus tickets home bringing some peace of mind, if everything went wrong for the next two days, at least we were getting home.  With that in mind, problems did come up, it turns out that the phone number for the hotel we had booked was wrong.  Normally this would not be a problem, but the site where I had booked our hotel only provided the English name of the hotel, which would be incomprehensible to the taxi driver that was going to take us there.  Luckily, the Chinese name of the hotel turned out to be the direct translation of the English name.  The taxi driver was surprised once he realized where he was taking us because apparently very few people knew about this hotel, which gave me some qualms about my hotel choice.  Once we reached the hotel, however, all my fears of picking the wrong hotel went away.  The Jingdezhen Joint Venture hotel looked like it had seen better days, but seemed to be holding on to its charm and elegance.  The rooms that we received far exceeded my expectations for the price and the only downside was the lack of wifi. 


Our gem of a hotel


With quite the front yard

The next day, we woke up early to find a pottery workshop that Brendan had heard about from his aunt.  We arrived at the area where it was supposed to be, but simply could not find it.  However, while being lost, we found a porcelain factory that shattered my image of how porcelain was made.  In my mind, there were still noble artisans hand making fine China, however, what I saw was a very ordinary looking man unglamorously spray painting huge vases with glaze.  Outside the factories broken pottery fragments littered the ground and large deformed vases were everywhere.  The whole pottery factory scene was a sobering sight, a reminder that times had really changed.  When we left the factory area, I suddenly did not want to get any porcelain.  What is the point of buying a massed produced porcelain tea set that you could get anywhere? Jingdezhen suddenly lost its mysticism.


Entrance to the porcelain factory site


Spray glazing


Defective and shattered porcelain everywhere

We ended up finding the pottery workshop after much asking around, only to discover that it was fully booked for months.  The workshop suggested we try another workshop in the area, but when we went there we were told that we could not make anything in just one day.  So instead of making pottery, we ended up touring the ancient looking building nearby.  We wandered into a building that was still being built (so much for actually being ancient), I was pretty sure that we were not supposed to be there but the security guard was asleep, which is a fairly common sight in China.  In addition to being under construction, the place was also being decorated for a wedding adding a little bit of color to everything. 


Impressive looking workshop, too bad it was fully booked


I wonder who was getting married

Once we left the area, we decided to make our way through the museums.  The first museum, we went to was called the Jingdezhen Museum of Porcelain was a huge disappointment.  I would say that ninety percent of the pieces that they had on display were wholly unimpressive, and they had an extremely small collection too.  The most fascinating part of the museum was the gift shop.  Earlier Brendon had said that he had read the best porcelain was found in museum gift shops.  I did not believe him, but after looking at the pieces at the museum gift shop for myself, I had to concede that he was right.  The museum gift shop had the thinnest and best painted porcelain by far, with a price that was comparable to the shops outside that were selling inferior goods.  As we left the museum, we asked the woman at the ticket counter where another museum was.  She told us that there was another museum nearby but that there was no point in going since it was much inferior to the one that we had just visited.  When we pressed her for the location she finally relented.  Though in the end, we probably should have listened to her because the museum was terrible, but it did give us a great view of the city when we reached the top. 


Best place to get porcelain


The museum with the view and not much else


Not much of a skyline compared to Shanghai

The last museum we visited that day was the most impressive by far.  I would even say that it is the best museum that I have gone to in China.  This museum was a long cab ride away and was a living museum.  Artisans were employed to show how the porcelain was made from start to finish.  It was quite the sight to see rows upon rows of vases lined up to dry and artisans painstakingly drawing in minute details.  I found my vision of Jingdezhen in a museum suggesting that I may just be a little behind the times. 


Rows upon rows of vases


The artisans I thought would be everywhere in Jingdezhen

When the sun went down, the city seemed to come alive once more.  We went to a very sad looking carnival, where I went on my first Ferris wheel ride ever. The view was not very impressive but it was fun nonetheless. The street corners were filled with people singing karaoke.  Under a bridge, we found a group playing pool and mahjong.  The older crowd tended to gather together to play Chinese instruments and sing Chinese opera.  There were some children playing jianzi (Chinese hacky sack) and I wanted to join in but Crystal would not let me. This was probably for the best because I would have schooled all those kids anyway. While soaking in all these sights, I thought to myself this is probably how most of China lives and wow is it different from Shanghai.


The view from the top of the ferris wheel


Karaoke on the street corner


Pool and Mahjong under a bridge

On our last day in Jingdezhen, we had completely exhausted everything we wanted to do.  After just two days, we were sick of porcelain.  To give you an idea how deep pottery runs in the city, you only have to look at the light poles along the street.  The poles are either painted to resemble porcelain or actually encased in porcelain. I could not decide which one of my theories were true though I was leaning towards the painting one.  In Jingdezhen, it is easier to find a porcelain shop than a restaurant. Even more mind boggling is how all the shops sell the same exact thing and yet still manage to survive. Pottery is so plentiful that while wandering around in a back alley I noticed that the residents had used it to repair their walls of their house. 


In Jingdezhen it is easier to find a porcelain shop than a restaurant


All shops look something like this and carry the exact same wares


Porcelain in the walls!

I went back to the Jingdezhen Museum of Porcelain, where I had seen the most beautiful set and spent the next forty-five minutes picking out the pieces.  The cups that I wanted were only a set of cups, they did not include a teapot or a tea gong.  So I had to spend a lot of time trying to find the right teapot and tea gong that matched the set of cups.  In the end, I thought I was pretty successful.  However, the steal buy of the day came from Brendan, when he decided after much internal debate to buy the bowl that he had been eyeing the entire time I was selecting my pieces.  The bowl was a beautiful piece, paper thin and gleaming white.  After he paid for the bowl, the shopkeeper reveled that it was made in the eighties and the last of its kind.  Quite a steal for a little over twenty US dollars.


My pride and joy

Packed with porcelain that we were a little afraid might break, we boarded the bus back to Shanghai. I have to admit that as much as I liked Jingdezhen, when the bus pulled up at the Shanghai bus station, I was really happy to be back home.

-muffinman

Jingdezhen Album
Tea Set Album