LOGISTICS
An image from more than 15 years ago, in April 2010 on a wonderful trip to North-Vietnam.
While still in Hanoi (prior to moving further north to Ha Long Bay and on to the area of the Chinese border with Lang Son and Ba Be on our schedule), we visited a city (or settlement) in the neighbourhood of the capital.
On the muddy banks of the river was a community of pottery makers, with small handicraft operations and also some larger scale stoneware factories.
I don't recall the name of this settlement, but it was worth a day long visit to the diverse pottery operations and to daily life in Vietnam in general.
(I remember a tasty lunch somewhere at a stall on a sidewalk: a woman sold food and had the whole "restaurant" with her in two large baskets, carried with a wooden pole over her shoulder. One basket contained the (burning) stove that she unpacked and on which she cooked, together with her vegetables, rice noodles and condiments. The other basket contained three minuscule plastic table and 12 even smaller plastic chairs. It was a "Bring Your Own Bottle" type of restaurant.)
And this is how transport of the finished pottery product was organized.
PS.
As an afterthought, I was frustrated at not remembering the name of the village.
A quick google search for "pottery town near Hanoi" revealed that is was the village of Bat Trang on the banks of the Red River, with its centuries old pottery tradition. The river being called "red" is probably an indication of where the ceramics industry gets its clay...
