Gaoling (Kaolin) Village and the high Gaoling Ridge in the background. In the foreground the river on which the Kaolin clay was transported downstream to Jingdezhen.
Photo: © Jan-Erik Nilsson, 1991

Half a day's trip to the north of Jingdezhen is the "High Ridge", which is the exact meaning of the word Gaoling or Kaolin. From this place came the white hard-fired clay, which was the secret ingredient of Chinese porcelain. It made up the "bones" of the porcelain clay body. The Kaolin clay was mined in open quarries and dug out of tunnels. Sometimes practically clean, sometimes mixed with whitish gravel. The gravel was washed out of the clay here, before it was delivered to Jingdezhen in the form of white clay bricks.

By the end of the Ming dynasty the clay mining here came to an end. But in huge mounds, ridges or hills the white gravel is still here. Actually the clay is still here to, but the gravel that was separated from the clay became to much for the local peasants, when it flushed down on their fields and ruined the soil. The district mandarin is then known to have reported that the clay had come to an end and that the production must stop. Whether this also was an act of opposing the conquering Manchurian Qing dynasty is as far as I know still to be researched, but the timing make it seems like it could have been part of the considerations.