On October 18, the 2026 China Jingdezhen International Ceramics Expo opened in grand style in the foyer of the Taobocheng International Convention and Exhibition Center in Jingdezhen. Cui Shixin, Party secretary of the All-China Journalists Association, and Wang Zhixiong, president of the Yangtze River Delta Science and Technology Innovation Investment Promotion Association, vice chairman of the 11th All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and former vice chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPPCC, attended the opening ceremony. Sasko Nasev, ambassador of North Macedonia to China; Batyr Tursunov, deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; Liu Jiangyi, Party secretary of the China National Light Industry Council; and Ahmet Kaya, deputy mayor of İznik, Türkiye, representing international sister cities, delivered speeches respectively. Chen Kelong, Party secretary of Jingdezhen, gave the welcome address, and Bao Jing, deputy Party secretary and mayor of Jingdezhen, presided over the ceremony. Nasev said Jingdezhen has more than 2,000 years of ceramic-making history, over 1,000 years of official-kiln history and over 600 years of imperial-kiln history. In July 2026, the “Jingdezhen Handmade Porcelain Industry Heritage” was formally inscribed on the World Heritage List, filling the gap of a “porcelain” theme in world cultural heritage. This is not only the supreme honor of a city, but also recognition of an industrial system and cultural spirit that has endured for a thousand years. Hundreds of years ago, Jingdezhen porcelain reached Europe along the Maritime Silk Road, closely linking China and North Macedonia across thousands of miles. To this day, judging by World Bank trade data, this link continues and keeps deepening. More importantly, earlier this year the cooperation between the two sides began moving from commodity trade toward deeper levels of cultural heritage protection and mutual learning among civilizations. He hoped the two sides would use porcelain as the medium and the heart as the bond, letting the thousand-year kiln fire light the future of mutual learning among civilizations and win-win cooperation.

The “SCO Window” themed exhibition zone

Tursunov said Jingdezhen is the cradle of porcelain and for hundreds and thousands of years has been synonymous with exquisite skill, superb craftsmanship and dialogue among civilizations. In July this year, the “Jingdezhen Handmade Porcelain Industry Heritage” project was inscribed on the World Heritage List. The inscription is distinctive: what China nominated is not a single ancient monument, but a complete industrial chain covering every stage from raw-material mining to finished firing. The recognition both pays tribute to China’s thousand-year porcelain art tradition and confirms that cultural heritage can transcend borders and differences and bring peoples together. The “SCO Window” themed exhibition, proposed by the SCO Secretariat and the Jingdezhen municipal government, displays works by master craftspeople from SCO member states, fully showing the rich and distinctive cultures of the peoples and embodying the “Shanghai Spirit.” He hoped the themed exhibition would be held regularly so that the cultural and economic dimensions of cooperation can empower each other, setting an excellent example of a bridge linking countries and continents. Liu Jiangyi said Jingdezhen is an important base of the national ceramics industry and has achieved remarkable results in recent years. In July this year, the “Jingdezhen Handmade Porcelain Industry Heritage” was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List, a high recognition of the historical value, craft inheritance and urban cultural context of Jingdezhen ceramics, and a milestone for Chinese ceramic culture going global. Jingdezhen’s ceramics industry has become the country’s first single-ceramics industrial cluster worth over 100 billion yuan, and the thousand-year porcelain capital is using innovation to let the thousand-year kiln fire burn with new colors of the times. The China National Light Industry Council has always firmly supported the development of Jingdezhen’s ceramics industry, supports the expo in playing an active role in integrating industry resources, top-level planning of the exhibition and raising international influence, and helps Jingdezhen polish its “thousand-year porcelain capital” calling card. It will continue to deepen its long-term strategic cooperation with Jingdezhen and provide service support in technological innovation, quality standards, green development, brand building and skilled talent.

The scene at the opening ceremony

Kaya said: “Today I am deeply honored to be with you in Jingdezhen, the heart of Chinese ceramic art. This meaningful gathering will further strengthen the friendship and cultural exchange and cooperation between İznik and its sister city Jingdezhen. Ceramics is not merely the meeting of earth and fire, but a world heritage that carries the history, cultural content and aesthetic ideas of civilization and the shared wealth of humankind into the future. Jingdezhen has a porcelain-making tradition of more than a thousand years, and İznik has a deep tradition of tile art. The sister-city relationship between the two represents not only friendship between two local governments but also the convergence of two ancient ceramic centers around shared cultural values. I hope İznik’s tiles and Jingdezhen’s porcelain will continue to be symbols of friendship across past and future, of shared heritage, and of new achievements we are about to create together.” Chen Kelong said Jingdezhen is a thousand-year porcelain capital known at home and abroad, one of the first national famous historical and cultural cities, and a World Capital of Handicrafts and Folk Arts. On July 25 this year, the “Jingdezhen Handmade Porcelain Industry Heritage” was successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List, filling the gap of a “porcelain” theme in world cultural heritage and pioneering a new paradigm of “industrial-chain heritage inscription,” giving Jingdezhen another world-class cultural calling card. Standing at a new historical starting point, we will carefully write the “second half of the article” after the inscription and let the thousand-year porcelain capital shine even more brilliantly in the new era. I hope everyone will work together to build the expo into a comprehensive ceramics platform with global influence that promotes ceramic culture, deepens mutual learning among civilizations and jointly advances industry development. I sincerely hope to use porcelain as the medium to deepen exchanges and cooperation with friends at home and abroad and jointly plan a new chapter of development. I warmly invite you, beyond attending the expo, to walk and see more of Jingdezhen, to immerse yourselves in the unique charm of this newly inscribed World Heritage city, and to feel in person the renewed vitality of the thousand-year porcelain capital — ‘In Jingdezhen, feel cultural China.’”

Three group standards released together

At the ceremony, major results for the Jingdezhen ceramics ecosystem were released, including the “one map, four lists” results of the ceramics industry’s digital and intelligent transformation; the new series of standards for the 2026 “Made in Jingdezhen” regional brand (ji-red glaze porcelain, bean-green glaze porcelain and sky-blue glaze porcelain); the Taobocheng Index; and “Enjoy Jingdezhen,” the city-wide digital culture and tourism platform of the porcelain capital.

Guests tour the exhibition zones

After the ceremony, the leaders and guests in attendance toured the exhibition zones in the Taobocheng International Convention and Exhibition Center in turn, stopping to admire fine porcelain, listening attentively to introductions on exhibits’ craftsmanship, creative design, cultural exchange and industry development, and chatting warmly with exhibitor representatives to learn about new achievements in the ceramics industry at home and abroad and to feel the cultural charm and innovative vitality of the thousand-year porcelain capital.