Misfortune piles up as floods hit China’s delicate porcelain industry
- Smashed ceramics and waterlogged factories latest challenge for business owners already struggling after Covid-19
- In one factory the gas tanks used to fire the kiln had simply floated away
The couple and their staff worked all day, moving plates, teapots, cups and other exquisite items to higher shelves and floors. But, when the water came – via a tributary of the swollen Yangtze River running through the city in the eastern province of Jiangxi – it washed over the levees and into hundreds of workshops, factories and shops, including Yu’s, before receding a day later.
When she returned to her shop and factory last Wednesday, she found them wrecked. The floodwaters had reached two metres and the entire factory had been submerged. Several shelves had fallen, smashing cups, and the kiln was waterlogged.
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Double trouble for China’s porcelain capital as Yangtze River floods add to pandemic woes
The floods, which have been moving steadily eastward along the Yangtze, swollen by torrential seasonal downpours, have now spread to 27 provinces. More than 34 million people across the provinces have been affected and at least 140 are dead or missing, according to official figures.