Chinese Museum Shows Off Its Ceramics Collection

Yixing County in Jiangsu Province Is the Pottery Capital of China

Feb 3, 2009

Yixing County is known as the pottery capital of China. The China Yixing Ceramics Museum showcases the pottery that's been made in this rural area for thousands of years.

Yixing is most famous for its teapots which are made a purple sand, known as zisha, which reportedly is only found in this area. When fashioned into teapots, the clay absorbs the flavor of the tea; eventually tea can be brewed in the teapot without adding tea leaves.

Zisha clay has been made into pottery for thousands of years in the Yixing area. The museum has some pieces dating back to 6,000 years ago. “For more (than) 7,000 years from the middle of Neolithic Age up to present times, the pottery of Yixing has been regarded as a proud paean of life,” the museum’s brochure states.

Museum Displays Thousands of Items

The museum highlights teapots and other zisha pottery, but it holds so much more than this. Museum holdings number in the tens of thousands, and include:

The museum has been around since the mid 20th century but underwent a major remodeling in 2004. The buildings are totally modern on the inside, but on the outside are reminiscent of a Chinese palace with their tiled roofs. Its several buildings sit on a hill overlooking the town of Dingshan. The hill where zisha comes from can be seen in the distance.

Also located on the museum grounds are the Center of Zisha Pottery Art & Culture, and the Research Institute for Zisha Pottery Art. Just outside the museum are shops where visitors can see teapots being made by hand, and can buy them directly from the artists themselves.

Yixing Is Near Shanghai and Wuxi

Yixing (pronounded ee-shing) is about a three-hour drive one way from Shanghai and about an hour from Wuxi, which also has a pottery center featuring Yixing pottery. Yixing is doable on a day trip from Wuxi. It can be done on a very rushed day trip from Shanghai. Buses run regularly from Shanghai and Wuxi to Yixing County. There is no train service at the moment, though Yixing County is planned as a stop on a new route between Hangzhou and Wuxi.

The museum is located at 150 Dingshan Bei Lu (North Dingshan Road). It is open daily.

The copyright of the article Chinese Museum Shows Off Its Ceramics Collection in World Museums is owned by Cheryl Probst. Permission to republish Chinese Museum Shows Off Its Ceramics Collection in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.