Unique clay hot pot containers in Yibin

"When the New Year comes, people always get together to eat hot pot. I need to make many clay pots," said Huang Bingxue, a pot maker in Dongsheng village, Gao county, southwest China's Sichuan province.

In the village, hot pot has become the family dinner for the New Year since the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty. And it was popular to make clay pots in the folk society.

Exquisite materials, sophisticated manufacturing processes and fine workmanship are required to make clay pots. Huang picks up a piece of yellow clay and says: "This is the raw material for making clay pot, which is dug out from the caves of remote mountains dozens of kilometers away from here. It is rather hard at first and will become soft after exposed to the sun and rain. The productions involve over ten processes such as baking, charcoaling, polishing and glazing, etc."

Containing various minerals, the clay pot makes the food fresh, fragrant, crisp and taste particularly delicious. Huang's handmade clay pots are not only popular in local restaurants, but also well sold in Chengdu city, northwest China's Xinjiang and southwest China's Yunnan province. Some people even drive a long way to buy the pots at Huang's home.