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I highly recommend Guangzhen "Po" Zhou, of Chinese Clay Art, USA, as a guide for touring the many ceramic arts related sites in China. Of all of the tours offered each year to China, I trust Po the most to guarantee a safe and informative journey, one that will forever be regarded with fond memories.
In the late spring of 2001, I joined a dozen ceramic artists and educators traveling under Mr. Zhou's guidance. We visited many of the great ceramics collections in museums throughout China, including the phenomenal Shanghai Museum of Art. Several days were spent in other ceramics producing cities, including Yixing and Jingdezhen and the mountaintop village of Chenlu. We visited the terra cotta army in Xian, and spent a day at the Forbidden City in Beijing. All along the way, we visited ceramic artists in their studios and in the schools where they teach. There was much to share with these remarkable artists, and Po's friendships and connections made these visits as enjoyable as they were informative.
I will not mince words -- China is not an easy place to travel. Many of the journeys from place to place are on undeveloped rural roads. The lack of sanitation in some of the more remote areas can be quite daunting. Po is aware of these difficulties for the Western traveler. He has found numerous accommodations where are generally quite good, and the food was always good. All of the hotels were three stars or better, and all were air-conditioned and clean, an important consideration in the more southern areas of China, where mosquitos may be a problem. Even the overnight train rides were first class, on new trains with air-conditioned semi-private cabins with four soft bunks each. In three-plus weeks, our dozen fellow travelers fared very well, with no illnesses or serious digestive problems. This is a testament to Po's good care of his guests.
Before you travel to China, make sure that you see your doctor to bring your immunizations up to date. You should be protected from tetanus, hepatitis, and other diseases. Make sure to pack general first aid items, including aspirin, antibiotic ointments and bandages, as you should when traveling anywhere out of the country. You may take a vial of pills of a general antibiotic, but I wouldn't take daily antibiotics unless I actually developed some sort of an infection. Antibiotics may play havoc with your digestive system, and that will certainly make traveling difficult.
There are many considerations to ponder when planning a trip to China, but the journey will make any difficulties worth the experience. One thing that I will absolutely guarantee: Po will take the best care of you. He is truly a decent and caring man, who makes every effort to see that all of the travelers in his charge are well taken care of. I would trust him more than anyone else currently taking ceramic tours to China. I encourage you to go to China, and enjoy the splendor of this vast country, and the depth and breadth of its ancient cultural treasures and contemporary arts.
Sincerely,
Richard Notkin
TRAVELING IN CHINA WITH PO 2002
After attending the International Ceramics Symposium in Foshan, China in October of 2002, I traveled through China for 11 days with ten other ceramic artists on a tour arranged and conducted by Po. It was a most memorable experience indeed. We traveled by air, bus or train, to wonderful destinations such as Shanghai, Xi'an, Beijing and other remarkable places. With Po as our tour guide we got to experience many small enjoyable things that would not have been part of a larger tour conducted by someone else and it provided a more in-depth immersion into Chinese culture. The accommodations were clean and comfortable and the food was delicious to say the least.
Po was a great tour guide; he had an agenda but was also open to interests of the group as we traveled the country.
For potters wishing to go to China, Po is the person to be with!!!!!
Tom Kerrigan
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