Yaozhou Kiln Museum

The Yaozhou Kiln Museum in Huangbao Town, about fifteen kilometres north of central Tongchuan, is China's largest ancient ceramic kiln theme museum. It is built around excavated kiln remains on the original Yaozhou production site, which means the museum incorporates actual archaeological evidence — kiln chambers, waste heaps, and stratigraphy — into its displays rather than presenting reconstructed exhibits in a separate gallery building.

The collection covers the full run of Yaozhou production from Tang through Ming, with particular strength in Song celadon: the distinctive olive-green glaze and the sophisticated incised decoration that made these vessels prized across Asia. The museum also addresses the distribution networks that carried Yaozhou ware from this plateau to markets as far as Southeast Asia. A ceramics workshop is attached where visitors can try their hand at the basic processes. The museum merits two hours at minimum.

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A story
The Yaozhou kilns began producing ceramics in the Tang Dynasty and continued without significant interruption until the Ming — a ceramic tradition lasting roughly a thousand years on the same site. The kilns produced celadon (qingci) with an incised decorative style distinctive enough to be instantly recognisable: peony scrolls, waves, fish, and animal designs cut into the unfired clay so that the pooled glaze creates depth and shadow in the finished vessel. At their Tang and Song peak, Yaozhou wares were among the finest ceramics produced in northern China.

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