China Guide
The Yangzi basin
Porcelain markets
Address: Jiefang Lu, south of the central square
Porcelain makes Jingdezhen worth a visit and the town is geared towards selling. There are a few tourist shops, but it's more fun – and affordable – to head to the markets on Jiefang Lu, where you'll find pavements clogged by stacks of everything that has ever been made in porcelain, in or out of fashion: metre-high vases, life-sized dogs, Western- and Chinese-style crockery, antique reproductions including yellow and green-glazed Tang camels, ugly statuettes of Buddhist and historical figures, and simple porcelain pandas for the mantelpiece. It's a surreal sight, as are the Chinese visitors buying them by the cartload.