Sanbao International Ceramics Village

Sanbao International Ceramics Village

About ten kilometers southeast of Jingdezhen city lies an area of old-style farmhouses and ceramic workshops called Sanbao International Ceramics Village. The entire village looks like an ordinary, very old rural courtyard. Upon entering, there is a clay sculpture symbol embedded with many porcelain shards and ceramic artworks. A small stream introduced from outside runs through the yard, its waters crystal clear. Lying there are porcelain bowls and fragments, some half-buried in the mud, while ancient wooden farming tools and local daily necessities rest quietly to the side. Vermilion Spring Festival couplets adorn the raw wood doors. There are long wooden pavilions and even old wooden grain buckets serving as chairs. It’s casual, simple, seemingly chaotic, yet naturally charming.

Here you’ll find scenes of original rural life: the houses were purchased from villagers, the courtyard walls were built 20 years ago using the traditional “dry-laid rammed earth” technique, and the furnishings inside are production and daily-use tools from over 20 years ago. Nearly ten artisans here produce ceramics and pottery tools using the most primitive methods. Since officially opening to the public in 2000, nearly a thousand foreign ceramic artists have come here to create, exchange ideas, and visit, with around 500 staying long-term. Its unique primitive charm and the steady stream of foreign visitors have made Sanbao International Ceramics Village a renowned retreat known as a “pottery paradise.”

In addition to living quarters, there are studios, ceramic art galleries, traditional porcelain-making tools, wood-fired kilns, and folk artists. One ceramic art wall is made from materials that are truly “trash”—broken-arm Guanyin statues, cracked portraits of leaders, headless Bodhisattvas, even slag cakes, bowl bottoms, and deformed dragon jars. This reorganized tradition has become wholly modern.

Sanbao Village is a compound of old-style farmhouses and ceramic workshops, surrounded by earthen courtyard walls built with the “dry-laid rammed earth” method. A clear stream runs through the yard. Everywhere in the courtyard are traces of years of labor—porcelain bowls and fragments, many half-buried in the mud.

Jingdezhen Sanbao International Ceramics Village was founded in 1995 by Professor Li Jianshen, a renowned ceramic artist who studied in Canada. Over the past decade, Sanbao has garnered widespread attention from international ceramic organizations, international ceramic education circles, and Chinese ceramic, educational, and cultural circles, becoming one of the important windows for international cultural exchange in Chinese ceramic arts. Since its establishment, Jingdezhen Sanbao International Ceramics Village has hosted thousands of artists, ceramicists, experts, scholars, friends from all walks of life, and important institutional personnel from around the world.

As China’s first representative of ceramic culture, the Sanbao Ceramic Art Research Institute was admitted as an official member organization by the International Academy of Ceramics in 2002.

Jingdezhen Sanbao International Ceramics Village has represented Chinese ceramic cultural exchange by attending, participating in, and organizing a series of major international ceramic events, including the 2004 Jingdezhen Millennium Porcelain Capital Celebration, the Australian International Ceramic Masters Creation and Exchange Exhibition, the Norwegian Oslo International Ceramic Art Symposium, the European Ceramic Work Centre, and creative exchanges at the Paciano Cultural Centre in Italy...

These activities have provided a highly valuable cultural platform for East-West ceramic cultural exchange.

2004-2008

In the coming years, the Sanbao Ceramic Art Research Institute and its affiliated Sanbao Ceramic Art Gallery will organize and participate in more international ceramic exhibitions, conferences, and exchange activities, holding broad prospects.

Jingdezhen Sanbao International Ceramics Village

Relying on Jingdezhen, the thousand-year-old porcelain capital, it integrates internationalization and contemporary cultural trends into China’s millennia-old ceramic cultural tradition, offering a brand-new concept for China’s and even the international ceramic and cultural arts communities in the 21st century.

Time Needed

1 day Transportation

Taking a taxi from downtown costs about 20 RMB and takes around 15 minutes (there are currently no buses from downtown to this location; the nearest bus line only goes as far as Sanbao Village, and there is no transportation within the village to reach the scenic spots)

Admission

Free (it’s mainly a place for ceramic artists to create and exchange ideas)

Opening Hours

Open all day (but for meals, it’s best to come between 8:30–19:30)

Location

Yaoli Town, Fuliang County, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province

Type: Folk Village & Handicraft Workshop

Recommended Visit Duration: 1 day

Opening Hours:

Open all day

Ticket Information:

Free admission.