Global Design Journey to the capital of ceramics

China's Jingdezhen has been making porcelain wares for more than 2,000 years

- Doreen Siow

JINGDEZHEN, Jiangxi - Driving into Jingdezhen, it looks like any other inland Chinese provincial city that has rampantly urbanised: concrete infrastructure and superhighways sprawled against paddy fields and mountains.

But I start noticing lamp posts and road dividers clad in blue-and-white porcelain, which look a little out of place in the grey city, but point to Jingdezhen's past as the world's porcelain capital.

The dusty city in south-eastern Jiangxi province has been producing porcelain wares for more than 2,000 years.

It is surrounded by the Gaoling Mountain range, which is rich in the kaolin clay deposits needed for the finest porcelain.

According to China's imperial records, when Emperor Shizong of Liao (947-951) heard that the kaolin here produced ceramics that was "white like jade, bright as a mirror, thin as paper" and "sounds like a bell", he arranged the Gaoling mines to supply porcelain exclusively to royalty.

Chinese porcelain made its way to Persia around the ninth century. At the same time, Jingdezhen artisans became acquainted with Persian cobalt, which turned a vivid blue when fired under high temperatures.