From figurines to garbage cans, everything is finely -crafted and ornamented in Dingshan, Yixing's "Pottery Center" and home to factories of China's world-famous Yixing teapots. Almost every family in this dusty town south of Yixing is engaged in the manufacture of ceramics since the Qin and Han dynasties. The town's 100,000 population change hands in crafting almost 2,000 types of pottery--from the famous Yixing teapot used in traditional Chinese tea ceremonies, to glazed tiles and ceramic frescoes found in Beijing's historic Forbidden City.
Workshops showing artisans at work are scattered all over the town, along with hundreds of teapot shops that draw hundreds of tourists eager to take home some pieces of Dingshan's ornamental rocks, oil and grain jars, flower vases and ceramic tables. The nearby Ceramics Museum shows the finest examples of such pottery dating from 6,000 years ago to present.