Love affair with porcelain defies age

NANCHANG－Over 15 km from the center of the famed ceramics capital of Jingdezhen in East China's Jiangxi province, several eye-catching buildings stand beside the road, decorated with fragments of brightly colored porcelain that dazzle tourists.

Strange though it may seem, these impressive structures in Xinping village, Fuliang county, were designed by a woman when she was in her 80s, standing as a tribute to her favorite art form.

Now 91, Yu Ermei has devoted a lifetime to porcelain, originally as a craftswoman and dealer, but now as a self-funding creator of porcelain palaces, as she dubs them.