Jingdezhen

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Position of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi

Jingdezhen (Simplified Chinese: 景德镇; Traditional Chinese: 景德鎮; pinyin: Jǐngdézhèn), or the Town of Jingde, is a prefecture-level city, previously a town, in Jiangxi Province, China, with a city population of 311,200 (estimate 2006) has been termed the "Porcelain Capital" (瓷都) because of its production of quality china. It has a 1700-year-old history of china production.

1 History
2 Subdivision
3 Geography
4 External link

[edit] History

Porcelain workshop in Jingdezhen

Jingde Town (景德鎮) was originally Changnan Town (昌南鎮) and renamed Southern Song Dynasty after an emperor's era name, during whose ruling period its production was most recognized.

In the 19th century, Jingde Town became a county (Jingde County). Under the People's Republic of China, it became a provincial city (county-level), whose name incorporates the entire expression "Jingde Town": Jingdezhen City (景德镇市). Usually when a town is upgraded to a city, "Town" is replaced by "City" (it would be "Jingde City" in this case). The retaining of "Town" is mainly for ease of recognizing its famous history.

[edit] Subdivision

Jingdezhen City governs four areas:

Changjiang District (昌江区)
Zhushan District (珠山区)
Leping City (乐平市): a county-level city
Fuliang County (浮梁县)

Jingde Town had been under the Fuliang County (浮梁縣) in most of the dynastic history (and completely so when it was Changnan Town). But now the administration hierarchy is inverted, with Fuliang County being under the Jingde Town City.

[edit] Geography

Jingde is in northeastern Jiangxi and neighbours Anhui. Its area is 5,246 km² with a population of 1,499,200. The highest point is 1,618-metre, with plains on the southern part with the average height of 200 metres.

It produces kaolinite, coal, manganese, and lime.