Liling (醴陵) is Zhuzhou's porcelain city, a county-level city on the Lu River against the Jiangxi border. Its kilns specialise in underglaze five-colour porcelain, and its factories have made state-gift dinnerware, including the daily-use porcelain produced for Mao Zedong and known simply as 'Mao porcelain'. Porcelain and fireworks are the two named pillars of its economy, backed by local porcelain clay and a university ceramics college. A Song geography explains the city's name from hills with wells of sweet, wine-like water.
Liling is Zhuzhou's porcelain city, known for underglaze five-colour ware. The kiln tradition, the industrial works and what its tables produce are the three lives of a town that sells its own clay and its own history.