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Pixiu. A fictional beast that eats gold. |
Resuming from the last post, we were at the night market at Fuzi Miao. Our local guide said that he will bring us to a place that sells jade. It was everyone's cue to prepare for shopping. Jade by definition is a a type of gemstone mineral. In Chinese it is used to collectively refer to anything made of jade including jadeite and nephrite. I didn't know that in English it was more specific. So technically most of the jewellery and ornaments we wear are made of jadeite rather than jade. It is also interesting to note that the Chinese value jade much more than any existing gemstone. I learned a lot more about jade and jadeite on this trip, but most importantly how to distinguish high quality jadeite. Photos were not allowed inside this "shop", but I managed to take a few.
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Name of the place |
Jade in its raw form is merely a stone. I would glance over it in a second and leave it. Who would have known that when polished correctly it would be so astoundingly beautiful. This is not something that can be captured in a photograph. It is much more captivating to see the real thing with your own eyes. Culturally, we Chinese hold it as precious as you may hold gold and diamonds. When you hold it in your hand, it feels unbelievably cool. Shone under a bright light, high quality jade is translucent. Inferior quality stones are more opaque and almost "dead" looking making them rather cheap and not coveted at all. Of course, the value in a jade piece comes with the carving done by a master, the size of the jade, how many colors are visible, and the quality of the original stone. All of this is taken into consideration before pricing it. However, there is always leeway to bargain.
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I got bored at one point and started taking pictures of fish. No one said I couldn't photograph fish. |
That morning all of us ganged up together to bargain. The sellers knew we wanted to buy and we knew they wanted to sell. It was a lot of talking and feeling. No, not inappropriate touching. I'm talking about physically touching the jade. The "shop" we went to sold necklaces, bracelets, amulets and more made out of jadeite. We each took our time browsing through pieces and feeling them. You have to be really picky because unless you're willing to slap down more cash, they keep the goods hidden. A couple of us eyed the zodiac carvings. I looked for my own zodiac, but it didn't look good at all. Dragon carvings are the most popular and were sold out. Instead I spied my eyes on the snake carvings instead. While it is not my zodiac, snake is also a character that is suppose to keep me grounded and I think represents my fortune. There were three snakes to choose from. Each had something I like and didn't like. One had a nice green color, but it was very opaque. One had a white translucent quality, but had a rough cut on one of the edges. The third one was kind of in between.
During the long talk about jade on the bus and at the "shop", they teach you the basics of selecting jadeite. Jadeite we all commonly know is green, but also comes in white, yellow, and purple. The more colors it has, the more expensive it is. Then there are other varieties of jade that come in darker shades of green. In most cases currently, jadeite necklaces with up to three colors can sell up to the hundred thousands. Even a small Buddha carving of a single color can sell up to 20,000 RMB. It's really up to you to decide whether you think it's worth it or not. Of course if you act on impulse, sellers will indefinitely charge you at an insane price. When you talk to them and prove to them that you have sufficient knowledge, they will be willing to cooperate on a reasonable price.
Like I said earlier, a bunch of us mercilessly bargained. Even if only one of us was buying, the five of us will chime in to lower prices for this one person. We basically helped each other hack down prices and pick good ones out. Believe me, there were a lot of pieces that were terribly carved or poorly polished. They tried to sell zodiac ornaments at 500 RMB each, but through some talking we eventually found out that they were worth 300 RMB (about $50 at current exchange rate). I settled upon the more white and translucent snake carving. Though its mostly white, it carried a hint of green making it two colors. It carried the least amount of markings out of the three and I bought it in the end. Nicer looking jade carvings were up to 1200 RMB. By comparison to a Buddha necklace I own, I feel like sellers are ripping people off. While they do sell genuine jade, the quality of the stone is not there. When we went back to Guangzhou, we went jade hunting again to see how prices fare in other provinces. To our surprise, they also sold the same carvings for the same price. You can even get jadeite at even cheaper prices, 50 RMB.
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I can't afford this. For scale, it's about the size of a small dog. |
I would say it's still worth buying because the prices will keep rising. Prices from a few years ago don't even matter anymore. That same piece you own is probably worth even more. We stayed a good four hours at this jadeite "shop" and when we got back on the bus, it seemed that at least half of us bought something. One of us got a really expensive bracelet and you can even tell just by looking at it. Our guide was ready to take us someplace else. He said if we were lucky we could meet a special person. I wonder who it could be?
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