Our shopping in Longquan finished, we left town after lunch to drive to Huangshan City. See below for 22 photos of bridges, tunnels, mountains and some amazing clouds on the way.
Year: 2024
Longquan celadon swan
Item description / significance
I saw swans like this for sale on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app, then I saw one in person in when my colleagues and I went to Xixi Wetlands to have tea. But I decided I wanted to buy one in Longquan itself if possible. I succeeded!
Bought where
in a shop in Longquan, where they make this kind of porcelain stuff
Age and origin
new, Chinese
What I like about it
It’s a bird. I think I’m generally less interested in water animals than I am in land and sky animals, but water birds can go wherever they want. I like anything with wings.
The color and texture. I find celadon porcelain soothing: it’s smooth and detailed at the same time. I picked the greener of the two color options in the shop.
See below for product photos of similar swans for comparison.
Japanese wooden bear
I bought this wooden bear carving while shopping for celadon in Longquan, Zhejiang Province on a road trip with my husband and my parents.
I’d seen a lot of these wooden bears on Xianyu, the Craigslist/Carousell app of China, and wanted one because I collect animal figurines. I liked this particular bear carving because unlike some of them, it isn’t too scratched, and unlike a lot of them, it isn’t eating a fish. (I prefer animal figurines that are just the animal, not multiple animals, and not the animal standing on something or engaging in an action.)
I had a suspicion that “vintage Japanese” might have been added to the descriptions of the wooden bears for sale on Xianyu for the sake of search engine optimization rather than to actually communicate their origin, because I’ve definitely seen some other things mislabeled. But now that I’ve done a Google search, I’m pretty sure these are actually Japanese.
History of kibori kuma
The internet informs me that farmers in Hokkaido (the northernmost island of Japan) started making them in the 1920s based on Swiss folk art wood carvings. The carvings became a famous type of souvenir. I have no idea how old mine is. Possibly not very. And of course it’s possible some place in China started making them too. But this kind of wooden bear folk art is firmly associated with Japan, specifically Hokkaido.
» Wikipedia article about kibori kuma (Japanese wooden bears)
» article about the wooden bears museum in Yakumo, Hokkaido
» website of the wooden bears museum in Yakumo, Hokkaido
Longquan Old Town
We wanted to do some shopping before we departed Longquan. First, we visited a shop that was literally downstairs from our hotel in the same building. After that, we drove to an old section of town and walked down an old street with mainly houses in one direction and some shops in the other direction.
See below for 32 photos from our time in Longquan!
Longquan celadon plum blossom bowl
Item description / significance
This is a blueish Longquan celadon rice bowl with a flowering tree pattern on both sides.
Bought where
at the gift shop in the sword factory in Longquan during the road trip I went on with my husband and my parents
Age and origin
new, Chinese, from Lonquan, Zhejiang Province
What I like about it
The pattern. I grew up with a blue-and-white porcelain bedside table lamp that had this kind of pattern. It is variously known as meihua, hawthorn, prunus mume, or plum blossom.
The shape. I collect small little bowls. I like some shape profiles better than others; I tend not to like rims that flare out like a bell. This is a good shape!
The color and texture. I find celadon porcelain soothing. It’s smooth and yet also detailed.
Longquan Sword Factory
Swords are the other thing that Longquan is known for, so Mom, Dad, Siqi, and I visited a “sword factory.” Didn’t look much like a factory to me! It was a bit like a theme park, and would normally have involved demonstrations by craftspeople. Unfortunately, nobody was making anything, I think because it was supposed to rain and they weren’t expecting many visitors. To be fair, they didn’t get many visitors, so we walked around and enjoyed the gardens, the architecture, the displays, and the shop in remarkable peace and quiet. Entry was free. And we didn’t get rained on. I call it a win.
See below for strangely few photos of swords but lots of photos of a sprawling complex of Chinese buildings and gardens.
Longquan Celadon Museum
I went with my mom, dad, and husband Siqi to visit the Longquan Celadon Museum, which tells about the history of celadon, a type of green-glazed porcelain or stoneware.
Off to the museum we go to be tourists!
See below for 14 more photos of our visit to the celadon museum.
To Longquan
For quite a while, I’ve been wanting to go to Longquan, a city of 252,000 people located about 4.5 hours southeast of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. Why Longquan? They’re famous for kilns that make Longquan celadon porcelain:
Longquan celadons were an important part of China’s export economy for over five hundred years, and were widely imitated in other countries, especially Korea and Japan. Their demise came after they were overtaken in their markets by blue and white porcelain from Jingdezhen. (Wikipedia)
I’ve seen celadon all over Asia (in shops and museums in Singapore, Japan, and Korea), and it’s pretty stuff. I wanted to see where it came from. So that was the first destination on our family road trip.
See below for 21 photos taken on the road to Longquan.
The Werts parents visit us in China!
My mom and dad came to visit me and my husband Siqi in China. My parents visited China and saw the sights in Shanghai, Suzhou, and Beijing some years ago, but I’m so glad they came to see where I live now and spend time with me and Siqi. We had a great time together!
Mom and Dad flew from Atlanta to Shanghai (via Seoul) and stayed in Shanghai overnight. A van brought them to Hangzhou; we hung out at home and then ate dinner at the local mall. Starting the next day, Siqi drove us in a big circle from Hangzhou to Longquan to Huangshan and back to Hangzhou, and then we all spent a little time together to Shanghai before my parents flew off again. Phew!
Our road trip looked more or less like this:
I have soooo many photos from our time together (though not as many as my dad)! So I’ve split them into 18 separate posts. Enjoy!
- Aug 17 – to Longquan (and funny English signs)
- Aug 18 – Longquan celadon museum
- Aug 18 – Longquan sword factory
- Aug 19 – Longquan Old Town
- Aug 19 – to Huangshan
- Aug 19 – Mild Spring Boutique Hotel, Huangshan (and its cats)
- Aug 20 – cable car up Yellow Mountain
- Aug 20 – walking up Yellow Mountain
- Aug 20/21 – Xihai Hotel on Yellow Mountain
- Aug 21 – walking down Yellow Mountain
- Aug 21 – cable car down Yellow Mountain
- Aug 21 – Liyang Old Street, Huangshan
- Aug 22 – back to Hangzhou
- Aug 23 – Impression West Lake show in Hangzhou
- Aug 24 – (visit with Siqi’s parents in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou)
- Aug 25 – Hengshan Garden Hotel, Shanghai
- Aug 26 – Shanghai Museum
- Aug 27 – sightseeing in Shanghai (The Bund, Yu Old Street)
- Bonus: English on signs!
cloud background by rawpixel.com on Freepik
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
Previously, I read Childhood’s End in 1999. I vaguely remembered some sort of mystical transformation of humankind at the end. In fact, I remember a book cover (which maybe doesn’t exist) that was black and asymmetrical with a looming red/orange/yellow embryo symbolizing humanity’s next phase of existence. I think I was confusing it with a bluish cover for Clarke’s 2010: Odyssey Two.
I saw a cheap used paperback with a spaceship on the cover on my trip to the US in December and decided to buy it and read it again. I had the vague idea that maybe the book would have some relevant things to say about the transformation of society that some are predicting will occur as a result of the development of artificial intelligence.
I was disappointed.
See below to find out why.
Continue reading Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
When and Why I Read Childhood's End
Read it once before. Got a cheap copy in Atlanta December 2023. Wanted to read it because it's about the future of humanity, and the AI people keep talking about the future of humanity. This had nothing relevant to say though.
Genre: science-fiction
Date started / date finished: 30-Mar-24 to 31-Mar-24
Length: 218 pages
ISBN: 0345347951
Originally published in: 1953/1974
Amazon link: Childhood's End
