Pottery pieces made by Wu Tiecheng are displayed in Ganquan village, Xin'an county, Luoyang city, Henan province, Sept 21, 2016. [Photo/IC]

Thick weeds cover the hundreds of ancient and abandoned kilns in Ganquan village in Xin'an county, Luoyang city of Henan province. For more than 1,000 years potters made ceramics here that were fired in its kilns. Five of the special ovens date from from the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, and 105 from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. All of them at one time produced pottery that made the village prosperous and famous.

When making ceramics, saggers, special clay boxes used to fire delicate pieces, were covered outside as a protection, and when the ceramics were finished, saggers had no use at all. So local villagers used saggers as the main material in building houses during that time. Nowadays, these sagger-made houses seem quite special.