Few words travelled the world quite like kaolin. It comes from Gaoling, which means High Ridge, a hill village in Jiangxi province where a pure white clay was dug for centuries and sent to the porcelain kilns of Jingdezhen. French missionaries in the eighteenth century took samples of this clay back to Europe, and the Chinese place name became the English and French word for the key ingredient in porcelain. So this ordinary-looking hillside is where one of the most famous materials in the world got its name.
Porcelain needs two things: kaolin, which gives the body its whiteness and plasticity, and petuntse, a crushed feldspar-rich stone that fluxes and makes the body glassy when fired. Gaoling supplied the first, and other hills nearby, such as the Changling site on a connected ride, supplied the second. Together they made Jingdezhen the porcelain capital of China for over a thousand years, with imperial kilns producing blue and white wares for the court in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today the old pits are quiet, and the scenery is a mix of terraced hillsides, small farms, bamboo and tea.
The country is hilly and green, in the northeast of Jiangxi, with winding local roads, village lanes and a fair amount of truck traffic. Jingdezhen lies about 36 km away and has about 300,000 people, with everything you need in terms of fuel, shops, hotels and restaurants. The city itself is a good place to spend time, with a museum of ceramics, old kiln sites and a market where artists sell pieces. Motorbike travel by foreign visitors is difficult in China because of licence rules, so check carefully, and consider a car and driver.
Spring and autumn are the best times to visit, while summers are hot and humid, with heavy rain and sometimes flooding. The climate and the high rainfall are part of why the area produces so much green. The hills smell of wet earth and woodsmoke, and in some villages you can still see families drying clay or firing small kilns. If you buy a piece of porcelain here, ask for its maker, and remember how many hands a single cup passes through.