Jiangxi Study Tour in Six Days: Bronze, Porcelain and Village Architecture

This is a taught programme, not a tour with a school on it. It runs on one idea - that Jiangxi is where you can watch a material tradition from the mine to the museum - and every day attaches to it. It opens in Nanchang with the Pavilion of Prince Teng and a ninety-minute briefing on what porcelain actually is and why it took a thousand years to get right, because without that the rest is sightseeing.

Day two is the provincial museum and then the Haihun site: bronze and porcelain in the morning, and in the afternoon a lesson in method - how an excavation is laid out, how objects are lifted and recorded, how bamboo slips are being read now. Days three and four are Jingdezhen: the imperial kiln where the court's rejects were destroyed and buried, the national collection, and then a full studio day at the wheel and the glaze bench. Day five is fieldwork in Wuyuan, where teams record Huizhou village architecture against a brief. Day six is Huangling, presentations over lunch, and the train out. Everything the group makes is fired, packed and shipped to the school with a manifest.

• Built for school groups: a taught session and a worksheet every day
• The Jiangxi Provincial Museum's bronze, taught as material science rather than as display
• The Haihun tomb: how a dig is laid out, how objects are lifted and recorded
• The imperial kiln, where rejected porcelain was smashed and buried - and why
• A full studio day at the wheel and the glaze bench, two taught sessions
• Fieldwork in Wuyuan: horse-head gables, light wells, drainage, lineage halls
• Two free teacher places, with their costs shared across the student price

• Accommodation for 5 nights at a 4-star or equivalent hotel, twin share, with daily breakfast
• Meals as listed in the daily itinerary (breakfast at your hotel, plus lunch and dinner as listed in the day-by-day itinerary below)
• Private air-conditioned vehicle with professional driver throughout
• English-speaking local guide (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian or Japanese on request)
• All entrance fees for the sites listed, including shuttle buses, eco-buses and cable cars where the site requires them
• Local handling and coordination service throughout the programme
• Bottled water (2 bottles per person per day) and audio headsets where group size requires them
• Travel accident insurance for the duration of the tour

• International air tickets and any domestic flights not listed in the itinerary
• China visa or visa-free entry documentation fees
• Meals not specified in the daily itinerary and all beverages/alcohol
• Tips for guides, drivers and hotel staff (suggested USD 8-12 per person per day)
• Personal expenses: laundry, telephone, minibar, shopping
• Optional activities and any item not listed under Price Includes
• Single-room supplement if a traveller requires a room alone
• Shipping of student work beyond the three pieces per student included
• A second studio day, if the group wants one
• Single or triple room supplements

Published: October 2026 — prices and itinerary reviewed on this date; later updates are shown in the revision note below.

Please read the notes below before you book. Prices are quoted per student for groups of 16, 20 or 30, and include two free teacher places. Museum and site reservations are made against passport details, so we need the group list at least ten days ahead.

Q: How is the price calculated, and what does it include?
A: Per student, for groups of 16, 20 or 30, with two free teacher places whose costs are shared across the student price shown. Included are all accommodation on four students per room, all meals as listed, private coaching throughout, entrance fees and reservations, the taught sessions, the studio day and materials for three pieces per student, and shipping of those three pieces. Single and triple rooms are quoted separately.

Q: Do the students need any experience with clay?
A: None at all. Sessions assume beginners, and a potter centers the clay for each student because centring is the one step beginners cannot do. Expect several failed pieces per student and two or three good ones, which is normal and is part of what the day teaches.

Q: When does the group's work arrive?
A: Allow about six weeks. Pieces must dry slowly, be bisque-fired, glazed and fired again, which takes a week or more at the studio, and then be packed and shipped. The group leader receives a manifest with each piece labelled by student and a tracking number.

Q: What is the fieldwork day actually like?
A: Teams of four or five are given a village - Likeng, Wangkou or Sixi - and a recording sheet covering specific things: the horse-head gable, the light well, the drainage, the position of the ancestral hall relative to the water. The questions are all answerable by looking, which is what makes it work. Teams present for five minutes each at dinner.

Q: What supervision do you provide?
A: One licensed English-speaking guide with the group throughout, plus studio instructors and site educators. We do not provide pastoral care or medical staff; the group leader remains responsible for the students at all times, and we brief them on the plan each morning.

Q: How far ahead should we book?
A: Ten days minimum for reservations, because museum and site slots are made against passport details. For spring and autumn dates - which is when school groups travel - six to eight weeks is realistic, because the studio and the summit accommodation both fill.

Q: Do I need a visa for this trip?
A: Most travellers do not. China's unilateral visa-free scheme now covers 50 countries for stays of up to 30 days, and the 240-hour visa-free transit scheme covers travellers from 57 countries entering through 65 designated ports. If you enter on 240-hour transit at Nanchang Changbei, note the stay area that applies to Jiangxi: you may move within Nanchang and Jingdezhen only, not the whole province. Check your nationality against the National Immigration Administration list before you book flights, because the scheme is reviewed and extended periodically.