People admire the celadon products at an exhibition hall in Shangyu district of Shaoxing, Zhejiang province on Jan 22. [Photo by Weng Xinyang/Xinhua]

For many Westerners, what springs to mind when they think of old China probably involves silk, tea, or china, the name given to porcelain in some parts of the West because it first appeared in imports from the country.

Shangyu district in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, home to nearly 400 old kilns, is one of the birthplaces of Chinese porcelain, especially celadon.

Celadon is a famous type of glazed porcelain made of violet-golden clay and a mixture of burnt feldspar, limestone, quartz and plant ash. It has been widely applied to daily necessities such as bowls, salvers, cups, pots and bottles for thousands of years.

The Yue kilns in Shanghai have a history of more than 1,800 years and the crafts developed here later spread to Jingde town in Jiangxi province and Longquan county in Zhejiang, two important porcelain production bases in China's history, according to Dong Wenhai, a master craftsman.

In recent years, Shangyu has been protecting and promoting its local celadon culture on the global stage by making protection plans, organizing academic conferences and cultivating celadon companies.