Gleanings: A Potter in China Flood-time, Jingdezhen
The last kilns have been unloaded, the 14-course farewell banquet is over, we've said, smiled, and hugged our goodbyes, and our group of twenty artists, potters, and educators is ready to leave Jindezhen, in Shangxi Province, for Xian and then Beijing before heading back to the States. Heavy rains have been falling for several days, and more is forecast.
Twice within five miles of our hotel we encounter water deep enough to reach our bus’s floorboards. At the edge of town where a stretch of highway is bordered on both sides for half a mile by porcelain outlets, the water is clearly too deep for any vehicle. Four men can be seen bobbing 50 yards away, pushing makeshift rafts in the neck-deep slough. Porcelain pots by the hundreds float everywhere. Ducks paddle among them, occasionally sticking their
