For example, during underwater archaeological research off the coast of South Korea in 1975, 18,000 Chinese porcelain items were discovered at a single shipwreck－10,000 of which were made in Longquan. The ship sank in 1323 on a voyage from Ningbo in Zhejiang province to Fukuoka in Japan.

When products from the Longquan Kilns were first introduced to France, they amazed the nobility there. However, since there was no word for this new type of ceramic, they named it after Celadon, a character in the popular opera L'Astree, who wore clothes of the same exquisite color, Geng explains.

"Celadon" soon entered Western vocabularies as a term for jade-green glazed porcelain ware.

Booming outward trade not only brought huge wealth to China, but also built up a trade network that linked the Chinese economy with the rest of the world, says Chen Shuihua, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum and the co-curator of the exhibition.