Chenlu Ancient Town sits on a mountain ridge in Yintai District, about fifteen kilometres southeast of Tongchuan's urban area. The town has been producing ceramics since the Tang Dynasty — over fourteen hundred years — and is still doing so: working kilns and craft workshops operate here alongside the preserved historic buildings. The old town's lanes are surfaced with ceramic waste — shards from failed firings pressed into the path surface — and the walls of houses incorporate decorative ceramic fragments, creating a built environment unlike anywhere else in China.
The combination of live craft production and historical preservation makes Chenlu more interesting than a purely museumified traditional town. You can watch potters throwing clay, see the wood-fired kilns used for certain types of production, and buy pieces directly from workshops at prices considerably below what you would pay in Xi'an. The town's green-glazed, black-glazed, and white-glazed wares continue the Yaozhou tradition in modified form.