Nanfeng Ancient Kiln in the Shiwan district is both a working pottery and an open-air museum of ceramic production. The kiln itself is a wood-fired dragon kiln of early Ming vintage, still used for ceremonial firings and for producing the glazed tiles and figurines that characterise Shiwan ware. You can walk through the kiln chambers when they're not firing, and potters work in the surrounding workshops throughout the day.
The adjacent Shiwan Ceramics Street stretches several hundred metres with studios, galleries, and shops selling everything from reproduction Song-dynasty figures to contemporary sculpture. Shiwan ware is known for its distinctive glazes — ochre, deep green, and the particular blue-grey known as guan ware blue — and for its figurative pottery, which depicts characters from Chinese mythology, opera, and folklore with sometimes extraordinary skill. Prices are honest and the quality variable; look around before buying.