China’s jewelry industry is quite similar to international market. The total sales of jewelry reached 470 billion yuan in 2013, becoming the world’s second large jewelry market
China jewelry consists mainly of gold, platinum and diamonds, but it also includes jade and many precious stones. Influenced by Buddhist culture, Chinese people also appreciate crystal, agate, pearls, ivory and giant clam.
China is the world’s largest country in jade processing and consumption. China jade carving has more than seven thousand years of history. The ancient Chinese people worshipped jade. They believed the jade represent the traditional Chinese spirit.
China has developed various jade carving technique and motifs. The main material for jade carving include emerald, green jade, white jade and many different kinds of agate. The total trade value in jade trading has reached 20 billion yuan per year.
In China, Guangdong province is the most important production base for jewelry industry. Most of jewelry, excluding jade, is produced in Guangdong.
The jade carving industry is widely distributed. It includes Liaoning province, Beijing, Xinjiang, Yunan and more than twenty different areas.
The industry emerged in a number of well-known brands, such as Zhou Dafu, Lao Feng Xiang and Caibai. In the meantime, there are a number of national masters engaged in this industry, such as Zhang Xinyi and Lu Lianlian. Many masters concentrate only in jade carving. Nowadays, a large number of young talents join these traditional crafts.
