My trek to Jingdezhen was realized by way of 8-hour direct bus from Hangzhou after the return from Anji. For those interested in getting there, I would advise against this method. It’s expensive (140rmb), the buses are shit, and for reasons beyond my explanation they play really loud versions of old James Bond movies dubbed in German, with FRENCH subtitles! The hell is up with that? I’m convinced our driver was after some kind of insurance payout, and was actively trying to roll the bus on one of the endless turns through the rural roads of Jiangxi. For a similar experience get a drunken hillbilly to take you for a cruise through Kentucky. There is supposedly an airport in Jingdezhen, but if there is, there aren’t any useful flights available as I spent lots of time trying to find one. The train is the way to go, it’s about the same price as the bus, it’s overnight so you don’t waste the day, and there’s lots of them going from Nanjing and Shanghai, as well as other centers. There’s a shorter bus from Nanchang, but unless you are already in, or going to that void of Southern China, it is useless.

Once I finally got there, it was easy to get in a taxi and find my way to a hotel. It isn’t a big city, so everything is nice and cheap. Jiangxi Province, situated below the Yangtze River is considered part of Southern China, thus making the populace of Jingdezhen southerners. This is one of the reasons I couldn’t live here. You see; southern people don’t like to drink. That clashes with my raison d’etre. Red-faced after one 2% bottle of beer. Unacceptable. The other reason is that unlike in the north where most dialects are very similar to Mandarin the local vernacular down here is what you would get if you tried to learn Swedish, Urdu and Swahili at the same time and then suffered catastrophic brain damage.

Jingdezhen is the capital of Chinese pottery. Unlike many of the places that claim to be the capital of kites, toilet paper, steel bearings or airborne dust particles (for example see Weifang), this place really did have a lot of pottery. From what I could tell, the town was untarnished by the rampant modernism and “progress” that is destroying so many other Chinese cities. It has definitely got the ancient China charm going on. It has that bohemian artist vibe that is sorely lacking in so many other cities in China. You can walk down any given alley in the city’s extensive older districts and come across all kinds of wild pottery, people crafting things by hand, and painting big ass urns that are fit for an elephant’s remains.

I would highly recommend it to anyone, but if you’re interested in ceramic arts and pottery, you’ll be in heaven. It’s a bitch to get to, but I think that’s why it’s still such a great place. If they had one of those D-trains going here, and regular flights, it would be loaded with tourists and tossers.

Funny things I saw:

Guy in the train station was eating peanuts for like an hour all of the sudden jumps up and starts brushing off the shells like he was covered with bees, immediately reminding me of Nicholas Cage in the Wickerman. This made me laugh aloud, freaking out the people sitting next to me.

Saw a stunning uighur girl inside the train station as well. Of course she was married to the dude who played Noriega in the movie blow, aka the same guy who plays the child rapist in Once Were Warriors. Except this dude took it one step further, he got plastic surgery at some point, and when he did, he was like, “listen man, give me Owen Wilson’s nose.” Who the fuck does that?

In lots of places in China, it is perfectly normal to see people walking around in their PJs. In Jingdezhen, they took it one step further and decided to equip for the winter by using that idea, and sewing several layers of padding into their PJs. The end result is a whack of people wandering around in snowsuits that would be excellent camouflage in any room with 70’s wallpaper.
Saw a cow running through the streets, which may or may not have been chased by a bunch of screaming farmers on motorcycles. I say may not, because this was downtown, a good 10 km from any farm, so if they were trying to catch it, they weren’t doing a very good job. They might just been playing some weird Jingdezhen game, like the shit they do in Spain.

I saw more whorehouses than I have ever seen anywhere else in China. The only place I’ve seen more brothels was in Bangkok, but that’s a given. Jingdezhen isn’t a big place, but about 3 of the 4 major streets were lined with them. What’s going on here? Are all the ceramic artists moonlighting as harlots? Or are all the male artisans so stressed from their craft that they need to settle down at night with some cold beers, pack a smokes and a hooker or two? OR maybe it’s just that Jingdezhen wasn’t just the capital of pottery but also of hair salons that are open weird hours with pink lights and lots of done up girls hanging around. Yeah…that must be it.

There were many mysteries in Jingdezhen. For example the picture above. What the hell are those!?

Filed under: tourist shit