Jingdezhen

( travelchinaguide.com, Wikipedia, chinadaily.com.cn )

Updated: 2011-08-23

Location of Jingdezhen within Jiangxi

Location: Jingdezhen situated on the eastern bank of the Yangtse River, and in the north-east of Jiangxi province of China and neighbours Anhui.The city center area is located in the north-east of the Poyang Lake Plain.

Physical Features: situated in the tropical hill area; topography descending from the northeast to southwest, most area in northeast and northwest dominated by mountains, and southeast and southwest by hills with mere latitude of 200 meters. Chang River and Le'an River - part of the water system of Boyang Lake, crossing the region from north to south. Its area is 5,256 km². The highest point is 1,618 meters, with plains on the southern part with an average height of 200 meters. Jingdezhen's natural resources include kaolin, coal, manganese, and lime, but it is the kaolin that has made the city famous in China and the world. For over a millennium, its unique kaolin has enabled Jingdezhen to make high-quality porcelain.

Demographics: Jingdezhen has a population of 1.49 million people and a metropolitan area consisting of 400,000 people. Most people are Han Chinese. The city covers an area of 5,248 square kilometers.

History: During the Han Dynasty, Jingdezhan was known as Xinpin. Historical records show that it was during time that it began to make porcelain. In 1004 BC, during the North Song Dynasty, Changnanzhen became Jingdezhen.

Fuliang ancient city

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jingdezhen was named one of four famous towns in Chinese history, along with Foshan (Guangdong province), Hankou (Hubei province) and Zhuxianzhen (Henan province). Jingdezhen was named one of top 24 national historical and cultural cities of the People's Republic of China on February 28, 1982. In 2004, Jingdezhen celebrated the millennium of its becoming the porcelain capital and its assuming its present name.

An ancient kiln room

Climatic Features: located in subtropical zone; featured the damp monsoon climate with 4 distinct seasons, sufficient sunlight and rainfall, long frost-free period. It has somewhat brief, cool and damp winters, and long, hot and humid summers. Extreme maximum temperatures of above 40 ℃ (104 ℉) have been recorded, as have extreme minimums below −5 ℃ (23 ℉).

Products: tea, silkworm, paddy, soybean, wheat, peanut, cotton, rapeseed, gingili. 

Jingdezhen porcelains

Porcelain: Jingdezhen's porcelain has been famous not only in China but in time it became known internationally for being "as thin as paper, as white as jade, as bright as a mirror, and as sound as a bell". The late Guo Moruo, a senior official who was also a famous historian and scholar of PRC wrote a poem that says (in translation): "China is well known in the world for its porcelain, and Jingdezhen is the most well-known centre, with the highest quality porcelain in China."

Foreign gusets are visiting ancient kiln

Most Jingdezhen porcelain is valued by collectors of antique porcelain throughout the world. According to media reports, a blue and white porcelain jar produced in Jingdezhen during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) was auctioned for the equivalent of 230,000,000 RMB in London, UK on July 12, 2005. This was the highest price achieved by a piece of porcelain in the history of all porcelain auctions of the world. The reason for the high price is experts believe that the blue and white Yuan Dynasty porcelain has a dominant position in the history of Chinese ceramics. It represents the pinnacle of the development of Chinese blue and white porcelain.