After many years of ups and downs, families in the brick and pottery village of Long Binh in  District 9 in Ho Chi Minh City produce only one product: imitation pottery of high value for export.

All products are handmade so each product is special. Mr. Thang, a potter with 15 years experience, said that the job is hard but income is low. For each finished product, a worker is only paid VND10,000- VND18,000 ($0.4-$0.7). Despite the low wages, most potters are attached to this job.

Each day a worker can make 10-20 products.

These are export products, so workers are very careful.

During work, workers use the smoke from wood to drive mosquitoes away.

Most of the kilns here use wood as fuel, for low cost. These wood kilns are often 2.5 m high, 30 m long.

The kiln floor is covered with a thick layer of white sand. With this kind of oven, it takes 3-4 days to complete a batch of pottery. 

Thanks to the special enamel, the products look like "genuine" antiques.

The prices for these products range fromVND100,000 to VND1 million ($4-$49). The most popular items for export are vases 1-2m high, priced at VND500,000. 

Each kiln can produce about 7,000 products a month. The vases with enamel that looks like volcanic lava are the best selling items in the pottery village.