Taoxichuan Ceramic Art Avenue is a complex project that is based on the protection and utilization of ceramic industry heritage, integrating industrial development and upgrading with new urbanization. It is a regional name as well as a brand name. With ceramic culture as the base and cultural and creative industry as the main business format, the project aims to build an cultural and creative street block connecting tradition, fashion, art with high-tech, realizing the deep integration of tradition and modernity, culture and technology, industry and life. Taoxichuan has become a new cultural landmark and a new business card of Jingdezhen, attracting great attention from all walks of life, bringing what is known as “The Taoxichuan Effect”.

The Avenue has won more than 50 national, provincial and municipal honors. It has been listed as one of the first batch of National Cultural Industry Demonstration Parks by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as one of the National Industrial Heritages by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, one of the first batch of China’s Industrial Heritages for Protection by the China Association for Science and Technology, and in the third batch of China’s 20th Century Architectural Heritage Projects. It is the employment and entrepreneurship base for youth for both sides of Taiwan Straits assigned by Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council PRC, and the demonstration model of Double Urban Repair industrial upgrading and park integration planning by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. It won the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation, China’s most influential copyright enterprise in 2018, the best Tradition Promotion Award of China’s Cultural Industry Park in 2017, and is the National 4A-level Tourist Attraction and the national model industrial park with harmonious labor relations. It is listed in the first batch of modern service industry clusters and is a provincial cultural industry demonstration base, a provincial ecological civilization demonstration base, a pilot zone for provincial leisure service industry development, a provincial youth (college students) entrepreneurship incubation demonstration base. It is in the first batch of provincial demonstration zone for integration of business, tourism and culture, in the first batch of provincial demonstration base for entrepreneurship and innovation, a provincial entrepreneurship incubation demonstration base, in the first batch of provincial cultural industry parks, a provincial model industrial park with harmonious labor relations, and won the provincial Labor Award. With so many honors as such, its parent company Jingdezhen Ceramic Culture Tourism Group was nominated as the Top 30 Cultural Enterprises of the country. 

The project takes the former Universe Porcelain Factory as the core start-up area. Through structural reformation, environmental shaping and vitality recovery, the project has helped to build up the ceramic industry heritage museum, the art gallery, the ceramic academy, Yi Space innovation and entrepreneurship base, the art center, the hotel with cultural themes, apartments for the youth, centers for ceramic art training and music education, brand shops, and other supportive facilities. It has become a sample of industrial heritage reformation and cultural innovative industry development and upgrading by implanting multiple formats and highlighting the core culture. Meanwhile, through strong investment promotion, 173 renowned domestic and foreign brands and institutions have been attracted to come and settle down here, including Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art, People.cn, European Ceramic Art Center, Momi Cafe, 3D Ceramic Printing, Yunnan Pottery, Kafelaku Coffee, the International Trade Hotel, etc., and many art institutions from abroad as well, forming a diversified and multi-dimensional mode of development.

Yi Space in Taoxichuan provides platform and incubator for the creativity of young people called “Jingpiao” (Jingdezhen drifters), coming to pursue and realize their art dreams in Jingdezhen. Five major sections have been provided: Fair of Creativity; Yi Space Mall, Online Flagship, Yi Lecture Hall, Yi Pioneer. More than 15000 young people have started their businesses here, creating strong repercussions in Jiangxi, even in the whole country. Meanwhile, joined hands with mainstream media such as Xinhuanet.com, People.cn, and ifeng.com, Yi Space further improved its brand promotion. Its flagship stores have been opened in the Forbidden City, Beijing World Shopping Mall, and Ciqikou Ancient Town of Chongqing and will be opened in Tongchuan of Shanxi, Longquan of Zhejiang, and Yuzhou of Henan. Supported by the brand effect of Taoxichuan, it will further promote the cultivation of products, cultural elements and talents and endeavour to build itself to be a supplier of cultural elements of ceramic industry. 

Strengthening its cultural exchanges home and abroad, Taoxichuan has been promoting its brand image far and wide. More than 150 high-quality art exhibitions have been successfully held here, including “Echo of Civilization”, “Sculptor of Dimension: Sino-U.S. Art Exchange Exhibition”, “National Memories: Images That Narrate China-U.S. Collaboration during World War II”, “IAPA Invitational Exhibition” in 2018, “Scandinavian Art Festival”, “TXC@Sunday Morning: a Taste of Ceramics”, “The Migration of Clay Characteristic: China Contemporary Ceramic Academic Invitation Exhibition”, “New Image of the Era: the 2019 China Jingdezhen ‘Public Sculpture International Exhibition in Taoxichuan”, and “The Brilliance of Time: Ci·Park Immersive Porcelain Exhibition”, etc. Each year, more than 50 artists were invited from abroad to reside here to create works, with lectures, seminars and individual exhibitions being held to share their international perspectives and their edge-cutting thinking. All these have made Taoxichuan an ideal place for academic visits and field trips for youth at home and abroad.

Taoxichuan is planned to be extended ten times the size it has now. The second phase of the project is already under construction with an investment of 5.8 billion yuan. The complex will cover Art & Science Lab, College of Technology and Art of Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Sino-German (at Jingdezhen) Industry 4.0 Intelligent Production Training Base, “Jingpiao” studio, library, music hall, museum, theater, Fenghuang Mountain Outdoor Sports Camp, Railway Heritage Park, gym, apartments, commercial and catering blocks, hotel, residential and office buildings and so on, to build a great “Taoxichuan” with a planned area of 20,000 square kilometers.