China Trip - Day 2 Huidong

The first night we stayed with our host factory in Huidong, about 2.5 to 3 hours northeast of Hong Kong, in the town of Pingshan.  This would be our home base, where we would return between trips to other parts of China.  We were setup in dorm rooms on the factory grounds, which were really just like hotel rooms.  We spent the next day touring the factory.  It was so exciting to see a ceramics operation of this scale!  I use slip casting and mold making in my studio practice but it was impressive to see a seven story factory with 1000’s of molds, kilns that run the length of each floor, and massive slip tanks.  Beyond that, the grounds were immaculately manicured and there was even a water treatment system that returned clean water from the factory to the water system.      

I have to admit that I was a little skeptical about visiting Chinese factories and the conditions I would see.  But after touring this facility I realized that not all of China’s factories are as bad as we see in the news.  I did hear later that this would be the nicest factory we would visit.