End of the Road

Yes it is a Tjunction. Like the vehocles approaching this sign we've reached the end of the road.
So, What have we learned, liked, disliked, want to change?

All cities are the same.
Landscapes vary by the yard.
Beloved didn't really want to go to India and was enchanted by it.
I didn't want to go to New Zealand (except to see our friends) and was knocked out by it.
Australia is very expensive.
Multi-nationals rip off New Zealand (books, medicines etc)
Poor people in general are kinder, friendlier, more helpful and more generous than rich people.
The only difficulties with flights (A delay on the shuttle coming home, luggage not transferred at Chandi, Inflight entertainment not working Shanghai-London) were with BA. 
Hong Kong is just a shopping mall
The Pacific is very blue.
You can become allergic to penicillin in your 60s.


We are now back in our usual oscillation between N Wales and Taroudant Morocco.  I will be resuming my morocco blog on
darbarbara-taroudant.blogspot.com
if you want to check we are still alive, the progress of the garden there or just seepictures of blue skies and Taroudant.

YuYuan Garden Shanghai

Compared to Suzhou Shanghai cannot be regarded as a home of classical gardens but it does have one Ming garden built in 1559. It has all the usual garden features. It is right in the centre of the city and is rrounded by an old bazaar area which has been restored and is full of shops oriented to foreign tourists. It is quite fun if exhausting and you have to bargain hard. We were geting thingd at between 1/10th and 1/3 of the asking price on the labels but I expect  you could do better if you had the time and energy. There was also a second Marks and Spencer store in the area which seemed to act largely as an outlet shop with the sort of 90% reductions you never see on M&S in Britain. This was very popular with chinese  tourists who were buying by the armload. There were a few teashops but no restaurants although there was a street market selling fast food nearby and small restaurants with the food displayed outside which they would cook for you. Very chinese and a bit of a challenge for westerners whose tours went through taking photos but not stopping to eat. We had prawns, much rounder beetle shaped than the usual, which came in their shells with buckets under the table to put the empties into but we found them an awful lot of work for a small reward. 

Shanghai Museum - Ceramics

The ceramics section of Shanghai Museum is its raison d'etre. If you thought the bronzes were good the pottery is mindbggling.
As in Suzhou the collection starts with very early pottery from neolithic times. The pottey was painted before it was fired, many of the patterns inspired by whirlpools.

 

By c1200BCE in the Shang dynasty higher firing temperatures were acheived causing a reductive  environment and much dark grey pottery was produced caused by the iron in the clay being deoxidised. The grey pottery could then be burnished by polishing. Patterns could also be incised on the pottery before firing.

Terracotta figures were also made during Shang and Han dynasties.

Ash glazed stoneware also developed during Han times and also lowfired green and brown glazes.

By Tang times (7-10C CE) true porcelain was being produced. Glazed "tricolour" pottery was also being made and the pottery animals and and Buddhist "Gods" beloved of modern reproducers for the tourist industry.

 A method of layering different clays to produce marbled ware was also developed.

Tricolour ware could also be found on vases and elaborate Phoenix ewers and similar items modelled on Sassanian silverware.

From Tang through Song times plain white glazes were used on both porcelain and Celadon.

A particular technique involved an incised pearl background to the main incised decoration.

Other glazes were developed at various kilns during the Song dynasty together with painted on glazes.



Song Dynasty, Cizhou Kiln





Song Dynasty, Jizhou Kiln



These Song pieces are probably my favourites together with Longshan blackware
By Yuan times the blue underglazed porcelain had been developed  beginning of the period known to Europe as "blue and white" .

 There is evidence that this was developed for demand in Turkey and Arab countries. A red underglaze was invented at the same time. By Ming ( 1348-1644) a method of  "rival colours" where a blue underglaze was over painted after firing with other colours was developed.After 1602 these became prized possessions in europe where "Ming Vase" became synomynous with "highly valuable".

By Kanxi times (early Qing) the same blue could be made into blues of different depths. The techniques of copper red underglaze and of combining red and blue underglaze was developed. Imperial vases of red dragons on blue waves were produced.

 After the Kanxi period the focus of production moved more and more to production for export and by late Qing design had moved towards western taste.