Calm Spirit/Ying Yu Jade China Trip 2006
Shamian Park and Wholesale Markets
After a wet but wonderful morning, we went back to the wholesale markets for our final shopping. There are wholesale markets for everything, including clothing, shoes, crafts, and we shopped at a wholesale market that had ready-made jewelry and semiprecious gemstones and jewelry. I bought some jade link bracelets, then went back to the jade market. Markets are all different, some are huge warehouse buildings. This jade market is a combination of a large building with smaller inside specialty shops and some outdoor stalls. The outdoor stalls sold the fake jades and highly bleached and color treated jade very cheap, but the jade I buy for Ying Yu Jade is gem quality. . So no cheap stuff.
I talked to a woman last week who went to this market when she was in Guangzhou to adopt her baby, and she couldn't deal with the no prices listed, ever. And I have to say, it does take a clear head and strong will to buy jade like this, asking the prices and bargaining for each piece. The sellers can look at you and decide how much they think you can pay, and that's the price you pay, or walk away. I look awful when I go shopping for that reason, and the only nice thing I wear is a good, moderate quality jade bangle for "face" and to let them know I expect good quality jade.
I didn't take photos because there was so much going on, we were loaded with heavy jade we had to watch carefully, and it was raining and hot. It's very hard work.
When you look at the jade bangles on my yingyujade.com web site, you probably notice that under the physical description is an energetic description, too. As a qi healer and Reiki master, I am very sensitive to jade energy. When I get my shipments and go through them and open each bangle package, I sort them by "feel" as well as appearance. I have so much experience handling hundreds of jade pieces that I can feel what is good quality, and feel what is not when I touch it. I also have some equipment for testing, but the equipment always validates the energy I feel in the jade. An acupuncture doctor taught me how to tell the quality of jade by using the body's acupuncture points, an old Chinese medicine technique, and that amused some of the sellers when I "tested" their jade. They wanted to learn how I did it, because they were surprised I could pick out the good from the bad, but it's still my secret.
After we finally got done buying for my store, I was ready to buy a special bangle
for myself. Of all the thousands and thousands of jade bangles, I was drawn to
a shop in the retail section of the wholesale market, where I found what had to
be one of the most expensive in the market. Of course, it was exactly my 53mm
size, translucent and icy like glass with lots of veins of imperial green. It
was slightly rounded on the inside, with a substantial inside-to-outside thickness
without being bulky. It felt like the most wonderful thing in the world when I
put it on, and I sure didn't want to take it off. It was about $9000, wholesale
price, and for the quality that was a very good price. But can you imagine wearing
a $9000 jade bangle every day, washing the dishes, doing yard work! And you wouldn't
keep a $9000 bangle in your jewelry drawer. Jade should make you happy when you
wear it, and this one would cause me to feel anxious if I wore it, so I passed.
But I haven't stopped thinking about it, and now regret not buying it.
