CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- On a hillside of Group 1 of Guilin Village, about 2.5km away from Laocaojiechang Town, Hechuan District, Chongqing, there is a strange old tile house hidden. Although the tile house looks old and dilapidated, the walls of the old tile house are very special and creative.

A house with jar walls on the hillside (Photographed by Zhou Yun)

The walls of the old tile house were actually made of ceramic jars, which are called “house with jar walls” by local people. These ceramic jars are about 0.5m in height. Some people say that they are jars used by farmers to make dried pickles. Why was the house walled with ceramic jars? Chen Fangtian, Party Branch Secretary of Guilin Village, said that it was the former Hechuan Qunli Pottery Factory. Before the liberation, it began to make pots, jars, urinals, night pots and other ceramic appliances, and it was shut down in the 1990s. In the process of firing porcelain, there would be porcelain of poor quality. The factory used these ceramic jars to build walls. One of the reasons was to save building materials, the other was to warn people with failed works to always remember quality first and keep the spirit of craftsman.

This old tile house with ceramic jar walls was once the Staff Dormitory of the former Hechuan Qunli Pottery Factory. Since the factory has been discontinued for many years, this Staff Dormitory has been idle until now. However, the walls made of ceramic jars has become a very creative landscape! (Translated by Luo Juan, Fathom Language Limited)