Bat Trang Pottery Village
Bat Trang, a traditional porcelain and pottery village with history of seven centuries, is an
interesting attraction in Ha Noi that tourists should not ignore.
Located in an area rich in clay, the village has advantage of ingredients to create fine ceramics. Moreover,
lying beside the Red River, between Thang Long and Pho Hien, two ancient trade centers in the north of Viet
Nam during the 15th-17th centuries. Bat Trang's ceramics were favourite products not only in the
domesticmarket, but also foreign ones thanks to Japanese, Chinese and Western trading boats that passed by.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, due to restricting foreign trade policy of Trinh, Nguyen dynasties, it was
difficult for pottery products in Viet Nam to be exported to foreign countries, and some famous pottery-
making villages like Bat Trang, or Chu Dau (Hai Duong province) went through a hard time. Since 1986,
thanks to economic reforms and development, more attention has been paid to the village and the world gets a
chance to know more about Vietnamese porcelain through many high quality exported Bat Trang's ceramic
products.
Bat Trang ceramics are produced for daily household use (bows, cups, plates, pots, bottles...), worshipping, or
decoration purposes. Nowadays, the pottery artists bring into ceramics many innovations in production
techniques, and creativity in products' features, so many new products have been made, and even daily
household items may have the beauty like decoration ones.