My First Day in Jingdezhen: Kilns, Queues, and a Really
My First Day in Jingdezhen: Kilns, Queues, and a Really Unbothered Buddha I arrived at Jingdezhen North station in the late morning. The train from Nanchang took just over an hour — 103 RMB for second class, clean and quiet. Before the trip, I booked the MeetPanda airport pickup service through their app. A driver was waiting at the exit with my name on a sign. This was such a relief. No standing in taxi lines, no trying to explain where the hotel is, no waving my phone with a Chinese address. He grabbed my suitcase, we walked to the car, and 25 minutes later I was checking into my hotel near Taoxichuan. For someone who just got off a train in a new city, that smooth start changed everything. After dropping my bag, I headed straight to the China Ceramics Museum. It’s free but you need a reservation, which I made two days before. Good thing — walk-ins were being turned away. The museum is enormous. Seven floors. I started at the top because everyone online said “go see the Speechless Buddha first.” And there it was. A small ceramic monk sitting cross-legged, his face completely blank, radiating a deep “I don’t care about anything” energy. People were queuing up to take selfies.