Day 72 - Headed for the ancient pottery towns

Today was an extremely hot Guangzhou day that was unusually clear of pollution, which allowed the sun to pierce down on us without the usual smog barrier we are used to - this was a little bit of a shock, but it was nice to see the blue sky in such a big city. Today we boarded the metro and headed for the Fangcun bus station we discovered by mistake yesterday, which meant we arrived at the station and we're jumping on board our next bus to Foshan in no time.

Foshan is only a 45 minute bus ride (but only 19km) out of Guangzhou, and is famous for being one of the oldest pottery towns in China. Although we were both expecting a small town, we were actually greeted by something more like an extension of the bustling city of Guangzhou.

We first headed to the area of Shiwan where ceramic shops literally line all the streets in Shiwan, where you can purchase anything from entire dinner sets to small figurines. Here, we visited the Nanfeng Ancient Kiln and its sister the Gao Kiln (known as "The Dragon Kilns"), both built during the Ming Dynasty (1506-1521) - reportedly the kilns' fires have never gone out, during their 500 year lives!
As we explored the ancient kilns, we saw a workman feed the eternal flame (a job we would hate to have in this extreme heat) and also got to see an artist shaping a pot on his pottery wheel and another putting the finishing touches on a small clay figurine. From what we observed of the four day pottery-making process from clay to masterpiece, all the artists must have a great deal of patience and skillful hands.
We also learnt more about the process, in the numerous museums and galleries that display a huge range of pottery from the weird (thank goodness for the English captions) to the absolutely stunning.

After several hours, we were in desperate need for food, so we headed first to a fruit market for some cheap bananas, and then to Renshou Buddhist temple for a delicious vegetarian feast (our first sweet'n'sour "pork" in China!). After weeks of dining on fried noodles and rice and the same 'ol veges, the feast today was a nice change (well worth the extra cost). It was also a bonus for us to find out what one of our favourite veges is: lotus flower root. While we didn't go into the temple we did get to appreciate the beautiful seven-storey pagoda, built in 1656.

Well-nourished we decided to walk back to the bus station, rather than cram into another sardine-tin bus, for our trip back to Guangzhou. Back home we relaxed and Adam made running repairs to his pack, making good use of the zinc-tape from home, which he desperately needs his old man to bring when he visits.

Dinner was a repeat of last night's 2-minute noodles with veges - not quite the feast we had at lunch - but of course the icecream that followed (vienetta on a stick for 40cents) was a nice finish to the meal.

Adlibing it to the heat of the Dragon Kilns.