Post by kk on Jul 28, 2013 0:50:07 GMT -5
Fleabay central in person or in other words to hell and back.
If you are a beader (is that how you call it?) or a jade fanatic, this is either Pure Hell or Paradise. Or maybe both.
Had one day off and went to one of the biggest permanent markets related to everything stone and advertised as a main source for jade in southern china. If you ever get here to Guangzhou (about 150km north of Hong Kong) this market is a must see for anyone interested in stone.
Its called Hualinsi. But be warned, I ask you to go there for the experience and the intense quantities you are going to see; not for quality or honesty of sellers. If you want to buy ANYTHING in there, you better know your shopping-list extremely well.
This is " Ebay Central",
Here is just one of 11 such buildings for the in-door experience
Just to give you a hint. The floor is about 300-400 meters long, each side goes 5 isles deep.
I estimate that to be about 900 to 1200 shops in this building alone. And all that for mostly beads. Care for some?
But beads where not what I was looking for, yet I still pend a good two hours in that building just walking through.
Next up, I went for the Jade open air section.
Big mistake going in there, no raw material and one small street after the other, and every one looks virtually the same.
Problem was not the offers, I quite enjoyed all those colors (by then I could not care any more about real or not). The problem was that I literally got lost in that maze for about 3 hours (I'm 99% sure that I never passed the same shops twice)
Found something that I had never seen in person before. Rhino horns, highly illegal even here, yet quite openly displayed. There where also snow leopard pelts, but the folks there where much more careful making sure I did not get a picture. Can see the appeal of those pelts, the colors are just amazing. Must be an absolutely fabulous and magnificent creature when alive.
Indoor section, yet another few buildings the size seen before, but now only 2 - 3 floors at a time.
While picture taking is categorically not welcomed, I was able to get some permissions and sneaked a few others.
Some over-sized beads
Ever wondered why we see less and less huge dendrite material? Wonder no more; there they where, by the hundreds if not thousands. Got permission to take pics only at one stall.
Taiwanese Jade,too nice to be natural, but looks absolutely stunning.
Said to be Burmese wood averaging 2-3 feet in size. Got a small piece that they had (presumably broken during shipping). It looks like pure opal with a few milky inclusions.
Chinese Cinnabar, got two pieces with smaller crystals as I was thinking about carving, yet as it turns out that girl took me to the cleaner with the price. Paid way too much.
How much space do you have in your luggage?
Some amazing Obsidian (those are a bit over a foot tall)
Yellow seems to be very popular at the moment, those amber-shops and pretenders are everywhere.
The best carving that I saw must be this monster (About 2 and a half foot tall and about 6 foot across.
But this one is not shabby either.
Fueling all this are the factories around the province, plus back alley shops like those.
High wall surround a lot of those buildings, yet you can hear the hum of generators and the familiar sounds of grinding and lapping-machines you got in your own homes.
Working away, a piece at a time.
Saw this lady coming in there with a piece of stone, as she was still there on the way back about a half an hour later, she had either brought a semi-finished piece to be done up, or a rough piece and is haggling now for a price to be set to have it done her way. I'm sure whatever it is, the 3 guys in the back will ensue, it will be ready the next day.
But with all those things available, I could not find a single fragment of Pietersite (had sample with me) nor could I get hold of any of this (one of the absolute favorites for carvers in china)
By the end of the day, I did end up with the overpriced Cinnabar, some excellent priced Sodalite, some really nice looking optical quartz, Bornite with question-marks, and the fantastic piece of opalized wood.
So despite of the hiccup, 8 hours in this place and getting some nice material out of it made it all worthwhile.
Best regards, Kurt
If you are a beader (is that how you call it?) or a jade fanatic, this is either Pure Hell or Paradise. Or maybe both.
Had one day off and went to one of the biggest permanent markets related to everything stone and advertised as a main source for jade in southern china. If you ever get here to Guangzhou (about 150km north of Hong Kong) this market is a must see for anyone interested in stone.
Its called Hualinsi. But be warned, I ask you to go there for the experience and the intense quantities you are going to see; not for quality or honesty of sellers. If you want to buy ANYTHING in there, you better know your shopping-list extremely well.
This is " Ebay Central",
Here is just one of 11 such buildings for the in-door experience
Just to give you a hint. The floor is about 300-400 meters long, each side goes 5 isles deep.
I estimate that to be about 900 to 1200 shops in this building alone. And all that for mostly beads. Care for some?
But beads where not what I was looking for, yet I still pend a good two hours in that building just walking through.
Next up, I went for the Jade open air section.
Big mistake going in there, no raw material and one small street after the other, and every one looks virtually the same.
Problem was not the offers, I quite enjoyed all those colors (by then I could not care any more about real or not). The problem was that I literally got lost in that maze for about 3 hours (I'm 99% sure that I never passed the same shops twice)
Found something that I had never seen in person before. Rhino horns, highly illegal even here, yet quite openly displayed. There where also snow leopard pelts, but the folks there where much more careful making sure I did not get a picture. Can see the appeal of those pelts, the colors are just amazing. Must be an absolutely fabulous and magnificent creature when alive.
Indoor section, yet another few buildings the size seen before, but now only 2 - 3 floors at a time.
While picture taking is categorically not welcomed, I was able to get some permissions and sneaked a few others.
Some over-sized beads
Ever wondered why we see less and less huge dendrite material? Wonder no more; there they where, by the hundreds if not thousands. Got permission to take pics only at one stall.
Taiwanese Jade,too nice to be natural, but looks absolutely stunning.
Said to be Burmese wood averaging 2-3 feet in size. Got a small piece that they had (presumably broken during shipping). It looks like pure opal with a few milky inclusions.
Chinese Cinnabar, got two pieces with smaller crystals as I was thinking about carving, yet as it turns out that girl took me to the cleaner with the price. Paid way too much.
How much space do you have in your luggage?
Some amazing Obsidian (those are a bit over a foot tall)
Yellow seems to be very popular at the moment, those amber-shops and pretenders are everywhere.
The best carving that I saw must be this monster (About 2 and a half foot tall and about 6 foot across.
But this one is not shabby either.
Fueling all this are the factories around the province, plus back alley shops like those.
High wall surround a lot of those buildings, yet you can hear the hum of generators and the familiar sounds of grinding and lapping-machines you got in your own homes.
Working away, a piece at a time.
Saw this lady coming in there with a piece of stone, as she was still there on the way back about a half an hour later, she had either brought a semi-finished piece to be done up, or a rough piece and is haggling now for a price to be set to have it done her way. I'm sure whatever it is, the 3 guys in the back will ensue, it will be ready the next day.
But with all those things available, I could not find a single fragment of Pietersite (had sample with me) nor could I get hold of any of this (one of the absolute favorites for carvers in china)
By the end of the day, I did end up with the overpriced Cinnabar, some excellent priced Sodalite, some really nice looking optical quartz, Bornite with question-marks, and the fantastic piece of opalized wood.
So despite of the hiccup, 8 hours in this place and getting some nice material out of it made it all worthwhile.
Best regards, Kurt
