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Historic city · Cultural centre · Industrial centre · Jiangxi

Jingdezhen

景德镇 (Jǐngdézhèn)

The porcelain capital, home of the imperial kilns

Jingdezhen is a prefecture-level city in north-eastern Jiangxi and the most famous porcelain centre in the world. Its kilns made the white, blue-and-white and enamelled porcelain supplied to the Yuan, Ming and Qing courts and exported across Asia and to Europe; it remains a working ceramics city of workshops, studios and schools and was named a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art in 2014.

ProvinceJiangxi

Key facts

Province
Jiangxi
Administrative level
Prefecture-level city
Area
about 5,256 km²[1]
Resident population
1.62 million(as of 2020 census)[2]
UNESCO Creative City
Crafts and Folk Art (2014)[3]

Overview

Jingdezhen lies on the Chang River in hills that provided the two essentials of porcelain — kaolin (named after the nearby Gaoling village) and porcelain stone — as well as pinewood for the kilns and a river to ship the wares. Potters were at work by the Han and Tang dynasties, and under the Song the town made the bluish-white qingbai ware and received its imperial name.

From the Yuan onwards Jingdezhen dominated Chinese porcelain: cobalt blue-and-white developed here in the fourteenth century, and the Ming imperial kilns produced the court's finest wares. The European trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries made its porcelain a global commodity. Today the city combines state factories turned creative districts, private workshops and the Jingdezhen Ceramic University.

Names and nicknames

  • 瓷都 (Cídū)

    “porcelain capital”

    The city's universal epithet.

  • 昌南 (Chāngnán)

    Older name of the town, south of the Chang River; a popular (unproven) theory links it to the English word “china”.

History

Around 1004 the Song emperor Zhenzong ordered porcelain for the court marked with his era name, Jingde, which the town adopted. The Yuan set up a porcelain bureau in 1278. The Ming imperial kilns, founded in 1369 at Zhushan, produced wares for the palace until 1911. Kiln workers' strikes, the Taiping war and the collapse of the dynasty ended the imperial era, but the craft continued.

  1. c. 1004

    Named Jingdezhen

    The town took the era name of the Song emperor for whom it made porcelain.

  2. 1278

    Fuliang Porcelain Bureau

    The Yuan administration organised porcelain production; blue-and-white matured in the following decades.

  3. 1369

    Ming imperial kilns

    Established at Zhushan in the town centre; their excavated remains are now an archaeological park.

  4. 1712

    Père d'Entrecolles's letters

    A French Jesuit's detailed description of porcelain making helped European factories learn the process.

  5. 2014

    UNESCO Creative City

    Joined the Creative Cities Network in the field of crafts and folk art.

Landmarks

  1. Museum

    Imperial Kiln Museum

    御窑博物馆 (Yùyáo Bówùguǎn)

    Brick-vaulted museum (2020) beside the excavated Ming and Qing imperial kiln site.

  2. Museum

    Ancient Kiln Folk Customs Museum

    古窑民俗博览区 (Gǔyáo Mínsú Bólǎnqū)

    Working reconstructions of historic kilns, including a firewood-fired egg-shaped kiln, with craftsmen demonstrating each stage.

  3. Museum

    China Ceramics Museum

    中国陶瓷博物馆 (Zhōngguó Táocí Bówùguǎn)

    Survey of Jingdezhen porcelain from the Five Dynasties to the present.

  4. Modern landmark

    Taoxichuan

    陶溪川 (Táoxīchuān)

    Former state porcelain factory converted into studios, galleries and a weekend craft market.

Neighbourhoods

  • Sanbao

    三宝村 (Sānbǎo Cūn)

    Valley village of studios and water-powered clay mills.

  • Old town

    老城区 (lǎo chéngqū)

    Lanes of kiln workshops and merchants' houses around the imperial kiln site.

Food

  • Cold rice noodles

    冷粉 (lěng fěn)

    Rice noodles dressed with chilli and pickles.

  • Alkaline rice cake

    碱水粑 (jiǎnshuǐ bā)

    Rice cake made with lye water, stir-fried.

Culture

Everything in Jingdezhen revolves around porcelain: potters' guilds once divided the craft into dozens of specialised trades, and the city's streets and lanes are named after kilns and workshops. Artists from across China and abroad now live and work in its studios.

Getting around

  • Jingdezhen North station is on the high-speed line between Hefei, Huangshan and Nanchang; Jingdezhen Luojia Airport has domestic flights.

Day trips

  • Gaoling

    高岭 (Gāolǐng)

    The village whose name gave the world the word kaolin, with old clay mines.

  • Yaoli

    瑶里 (Yáolǐ)

    Old town in the hills where early kilns and clay mills survive.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

  1. Jingdezhen Municipal People's Government — Jingdezhen Municipal People's Government (retrieved 27 September 2026)
  2. Seventh National Population Census communiqués — National Bureau of Statistics of China (retrieved 27 September 2026)
  3. Creative Cities Network — UNESCO (retrieved 27 September 2026)
  4. Jingdezhen — Encyclopaedia Britannica (retrieved 27 September 2026)

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