China hosts large resources of kaolin and is only t6pped by the USA and Russia. Up until 1991, 218 kaolin occurrences with reserves had been verified, whose overall reserves exceeded 2,500m. tonnes. Known ore deposits amount to more than 700, and overall reserves might reach 5,500m. tonnes. The ore deposits are spread over 19 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions, and new mineral occurrences are discovered continuously in other provinces and regions. China has a long history in both the development and utilisation of kaolin resources,. In fact it has been determined from, the historical ruins of the Yangshao Culture and the Longshan Cultme that the white pottery fired 4,000 years ago in the early Neolithic Age contains kaolin, whilst the engraved pottery from the Shang Dynasty 3,000 years ago is completely made of kaolin. During the period of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the craftsmen in Jingdezhen, the ceramic capital of China, initiated what were, at that time, advanced methods of using china stone and kaolin as the basis to enhance the quality of chinaware. Consequently, Jingdezhen chinaware earned the aesthetic reputation of being "white as jade, bright as mirror, thin as paper and ringing like chime stone".
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