Treasure Chest

Straddling the Chang River in an the long-secret critical ingredient of porcelain, locked Chinese province of Jiangxi--has been China's center fo the exquisite translucent ceramic for well over a millennium. Completed in 2020, but only recently installed with excavated artifacts and fully opened to the public, architect Zhu Pei's Imperial Kiln Museum marks this legacy on the site of the city's former kilns from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Here the finest enamel-glazed and, especially, blue-and-white vessels were produced for the imperial household and for export during one of the heights of the art in China. The museum--among the most photographed new buildings in China at the moment--is significant in its own right.