Jun Ware and the Kiln Town of Shenhou

Shenhou lies south-west of Yuzhou in a bowl of mountains, and from the Tang and Song onwards it was a producing centre and a collecting point for northern ceramics, so that the firing of Jun ware became the town’s defining work. The old street runs seven li on flagstones past small shops selling everything from flower pots to fridge magnets, and at one corner a wall of broken Jun shards has been stacked up as a subject for photographs. Several kilometres away in Yuzhou, the production workshop of the Ping Shan kiln is open, and a piece can be watched from shaping to firing.