Changsha Tongguan Kiln National Archaeological Site Park

Cultural heritage

The Changsha Tongguan Kiln National Archaeological Site Park lies in Wangcheng District of Changsha, built on the thousand-year-old Tang-dynasty Changsha kiln site. The Changsha kiln pioneered underglaze polychrome decoration and is the birthplace of underglaze-coloured porcelain, called a milestone in the outward reach of Chinese culture. Its wares once travelled the maritime Silk Road to West Asia and North Africa, and the 1998 discovery of more than fifty thousand Changsha-kiln pieces in the "Belitung" shipwreck off Indonesia astonished the world. The park unites site conservation, a museum and hands-on pottery, the key place to understand Tang export ware and the underglaze craft.

Visiting: Wandering the park, one sees layer upon layer of ancient kiln remains and mounds of porcelain shards, conjuring the days when smoke from the pottery town filled the riverside; in the exhibition hall the Tang wares inscribed with verses and painted with foreign motifs speak quietly of a thousand-year dialogue between Changsha's potters and the wider world. To throw a pot on the wheel and brush colour onto raw clay is to feel for oneself the ingenuity of the underglaze craft.