Calm Spirit/Ying Yu Jade China Trip 2005

Dandong and Xiuyan Jade Market
Dandong city is a port in the corner of Liaoning Province at the Yalu River and Yellow Sea. It is next to North Korea and the bridge crosses to Kinuiju in N. Korea. Dandong is a tourist center, but Westerners are rarely seen, Chinese people come here just to see the border of their country. The strong Korean influence can be felt especially in the restaurants. When the Chinese entered the Korean War, Dandong was bombed by UN forces, which happened to be the Americans, who attempted to destroy the original Yalu River bridge. The Chinese version of events is recorded in the city's amazing Museum to Commemorate the Defeat of American Aggression. A park includes entrance to the bombed bridge, and I really wanted to visit this park in the mornings and play taiji on the bridge, but I didn't want to take the risk of hostility and wind up in the Yalu River.
The Zhong Lian Hotel is the only four star hotel in the city, and our room had a view of the river. This is were you can really tell that they don't cater to Westerners. There was one English language channel on the television, and although there was English menus, and room amenities, it was very difficult to talk to any of the hotel staff. There are even squat toilets in the lobby instead of western toilets that most four star hotels offer. The lobby is a spacious and comfortable place to watch the world go by, with plenty of cushy chairs. It was almost always filled with arrogant businessmen leering at all the women who passed through. Tom needed a change from Chinese food and we had hamburgers in the piano bar, but it didn't taste much like a hamburger, and the server either didn't know what she was doing or didn't want to serve Americans. We ate at the breakfast buffet one morning and after circling it twice and not recognizing most of the food, ate some things that didn't look like they would cause us problems later. As we waited for the elevator to leave for the day, we saw the hotel staff mustering for their shift. It is really interesting and impressive to see staff at restaurants lined up and ready to start their work shift as they do in Dandong.

We then rented a car to go to Xiuyan and the jade market. It's a long drive, through mountains and countryside, but interesting and we enjoyed seeing China this way. The jade market is huge, and the vendors didn't want me to take photos, so I took only a few at the entrance.

It is truly an extensive market offering most of the Chinese jade items that I have on both yingyujade.com and calmspirit.net. The most interesting of all the jade is the carvings, but they are so heavy and breakable that I am extremely reluctant to purchase any. I bought some items, but most important, I showed my supplier the kinds of jades that I want him to send me in future shipments. He works with some of the carvers so that the things he sells me are a little higher quality than the general jade market items. We also went to some of the retail jade stores, in huge malls like small cities, where there were more high quality jade items. My supplier is a very good shopper, and can purchase items for lower prices than I as a foreigner can. For example, I bought five jade money toads at the jade market that stood out as being especially nice and a good size. The seller thought that I should pay a higher price for five, rather than a lower price for buying more than one, because she thought I would take them to the US and make a profit. Well, yes, of course that's the point, but to her mind, and other sellers minds, I should pay more because I can make profit. It's totally opposite business sense as we think of it, but this is the mind set I have to deal with when I buy in China. Although China has been a member of WTO for several years, the attitude and practice is still discriminatory to foreign buyers, like me!

After we returned from the jade market, we had dinner at a Korean restaurant with my supplier, his wife, and our driver. I wish I had photos of our food, which was really interesting, and at one time Tom counted 45 different bowls of food on our table. It is traditional to sit on the floor at Korean restaurants, which is a comfortable and friendly way to eat.

Next: More Photos of He Hua (Lotus) Jade Market
Ying Yu Jade
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