Pearl River
— — a slow brown river under a skyline of cranes.
Not only on a wall.
“The Pearl River — Zhujiang in Mandarin — is the third-longest river in China, running roughly 2,400 kilometres from the highlands of eastern Yunnan east to the South China Sea. By the time it reaches Guangzhou it is a wide working channel carrying barges and ferries between the old quay at Shamian Island and the glass towers of Zhujiang New Town. Downstream it opens into the Pearl River Delta, one of the most densely built coastlines on earth, with Hong Kong and Macau on its outer flanks. At night the towers throw their colour onto the water. from the studio
Pearl River, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Pearl River — Zhujiang — is the third-longest river in China after the Yangtze and the Yellow, running roughly 2,400 kilometres from the eastern Yunnan plateau through Guizhou and Guangxi into Guangdong, and out through the Pearl River Delta to the South China Sea. The river is in fact a system of three main tributaries — the Xi (West), Bei (North), and Dong (East) — which converge in the delta. Its drainage basin covers about 453,700 square kilometres. The English name derives from the bed of oyster shells once visible in the channel through Guangzhou, which gave a pearl-like sheen.
Through Guangzhou the river is a wide, brown, working channel. Container barges and tugs share water with the white double-decker tourist ferries that run the night cruises between Shamian Island and the Canton Tower. Annual discharge into the South China Sea is roughly 336 billion cubic metres, one of the largest of any river in Asia, and the delta downstream — the Pearl River Delta — is one of the most densely populated and intensively built coastlines on earth. The river carries silt that has built the delta steadily seaward over centuries; tidal influence reaches well inland past Guangzhou on high tides.
In Guangzhou the river is best experienced from the water at night. Tourist cruises depart from piers at Tianzi and Dashatou and run a roughly hour-long loop past the Canton Tower — at 604 metres, briefly the tallest tower in the world when it opened in 2010 — and the lit skyline of Zhujiang New Town. The old foreign concession of Shamian Island sits on the north bank, reached by short bridges, with European facades from the late nineteenth century. Downstream, the river opens into the delta and the cross-sea bridge networks that link Guangzhou with Hong Kong and Macau on its outer flanks.