“Dehua has many beautiful ceramics”, is how the Italian traveller Marko Polo described Dehua. Porcelain manufacture has a long history in Dehua. Well-known both in China and overseas for its top quality, fine workmanship, the porcelain industry in Dehua is regarded as one of the three major porcelain capitals in China, together with Jingde town of Jiangxi Province and Lilin of Hunan Province. In Ming Dynasty, the “Ivory White” ceramics developed by the great master He Chaozong surprised the world and was named “China White” by the westerners. People describe Dehua top white porcelain as “white as snow, thin as paper, bright as mirror” and describe Dehua Jianbai porcelain as “smooth and transparent as condensed lipid and frozen jade”. The porcelain Kuanyin made in Dehua is called “Oriental Venus”. |