[Treasure hunt 5] Colored jade processing in Shilin County

Speaking of the Shilin County in Yunnan Province, most people will think about the Stone Forest scenic area. But besides the grotesque stones in the scenic, Shilin is also famous for another kind of stone——the colored jade.  

“More and more workshops have emerged in recent years in the area of processing colored jade thanks to a promising sale prospect,” said Li Linhong, owner of a local workshop in the Shilin Western Trade Center.

In the Shilin Western Trade Center, you will see a variety of high-quality colored jade products such as bracelets and pendants, and some exquisite ornaments can cost as much as tens of thousands of yuan.

Li said colored jade accessories in his workshop have an average daily sale of 200-1,000 yuan. And there are many similar workshops in the Trade Center.

The prices of Shilin colored jade vary from 100 yuan to several million yuan a piece. According to Ding Fengyun, president of Yunnan Fengyun Trade Company, locally produced Shilin colored jade includes agates, crystals and green jade which have great collection, ornamental and investment values. It belongs to microcrystalline silicon oxide categories with density of 2.8 and hardness of 7.5, harder than that of nephrite which is between 6-6.5. 

Shilin County has stipulated preliminary cultural industry-related supportive policies to promote the development of colored jade industry. After several years of development, there are nearly a hundred dealers engaged in selling colored jade in the county, over 200 people engaged in processing colored jade. 

In 2013, a producing, processing and sale area for Shilin colored jade was built in the Grand Shilin Cultural Tourism Garden. Now, Shilin colored jade is exported to Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia and more.  

(By Liu Jiatong, Daguan Weekly)