2 Days in Yixing

At the end of your drive to Yixing (takes about three hours), head straight to Dingshu Town, a dusty rather unattractive spot where all the teapot sites are found. Start your visit at the Yixing Ceramics Museum, 150 Dingshan Bei Lu (tel: +86 510 740 1521), an airy palace-style building atop a hill, surrounded by a tranquil garden. The museum has exhibitions containing examples of all types of ceramics from the area, including rooms of antique teapots going back hundreds of years. Here you can develop your appreciation for their infinite variety -- round, square, hexagonal pots, pots shaped like pumpkins, tree stumps, bamboo slices, animals, decorated with vines, poems, small animals, spider webs, double pots – each more charming than the last. Outside and down the hill, within the museum complex, various artisans are selling teapots of varying quality, ranging from as little as 30 yuan to 1000 or more. (Do bargain.)

Outside the museum complex and across the street, allow plenty of time to shop in the extensive Longqi pottery market, indoors and outdoors. At rock bottom prices you can purchase clay flower pots, bright tableware for your house (much of it labeled for the American and European markets), garden furniture, statues, little clay teapots, unglazed baking vessels – if it’s pottery, it’s made here. Caveat: Stall owners reported that the market will move in the next few months, so you may have to do some checking to locate it. (A couple of vendors’ mobile numbers to try: 138 6151 9498 and 139 6157 3488.)