The Donghai Crystal Market

Crystals, with their glitter and clarity, are seen by many as something nearly sacred, and Donghai County in the city of Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, is well-named as the "land of crystals". With 70% of the national reserve of the precious material, Donghai produces 80% of China's crystal products.

The 4.35-tonne "China Crystal King", among the precious collections at the Chinese Museum of Geology, was unearthed in Donghai.

The Donghai Crystal Market is on a 20,000 sqm site. The three-storey development has a total business area of 35,000 sqm and over 5,000 stalls can accommodate 2,500 traders. There are 300 shops and 500 counters on the ground floor, where over 1,000 variations of raw stones, ornaments, ornamental stones, natural crystal handicraft works and articles, imitation crystal gifts and industrial raw materials are presented.

On the first floor of the market there are 160 shops and 1,600 counters selling close to 10,000 types of local handicrafts and mineral products. The second floor houses crystal processing workshops, warehouses, restaurants, guest rooms and sitting rooms in addition to a gym, a bowling alley and other facilities.

The crystal market is doing good business. The place is packed with crystal dealers, both Chinese and foreign, especially on traditional market days. The ground-floor trading hall is filled with rows of stalls extending for hundreds of metres and selling all kinds of crystals, from thumb-sized items to big rocks weighing over 1,000 kg.

Crystals come in all sorts of colours - red, purple, green, black, white, yellow and blue. The market receives over 10,000 foreign and local visitors daily, with some 50,000 visitors on a peak day and well over 300,000 visitors each year. Annual turnover is between Rmb460 million and Rmb480 million (HK$433.9 million and HK$452.8 million).


Main entrance to the Donghai Crystal Market.

An array of natural crystals.


A palace made of crystal


Expensive crystal Bodhisattva.
The ground-floor trading hall is like a crystal palace. The glittering and translucent crystal products in the glass showcases are almost hypnotic to behold. Thousands of crystal necklaces, bracelets, bangles, spectacles, pendants, healthcare products and collectible items are on sale. The products are divided into high, medium and low grades and are priced according to quality and workmanship.

There are necklaces selling at between Rmb20 and Rmb100 (HK$18.8 and HK$94.3), while handicraft items carry price tags of over Rmb1,000 (HK$943.3). A small piece of crystal meticulously cut by master craftsman can fetch tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan.

About 50% of the raw materials sold in the crystal market is produced locally, while the other 50% is sourced from different parts of the world.

Donghai imports hundreds of tonnes of raw stones from Brazil, Myanmar, South Africa, Russia, Zambia and other countries each year. The finished products are sold to over 50 countries and regions including Japan, South Korea, the US, Thailand, Brazil, Southeast Asia, North America, Western Europe, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

As a world display, processing and trading centre for crystals, the Donghai Crystal Market attracts crowds of traders of different nationalities who speak many different languages (and wear different clothes). The biennial China Donghai Crystal Festival also draws traders from all over the world.

Donghai crystals are not only sold worldwide but have penetrated the market in large- and medium-sized Chinese cities. Most crystal products sold at major jewellery shops across China bear the "Donghai Crystal" label.

It costs Rmb8,800 (HK$8,301.8) to rent a 14 sqm shop at the crystal market. The rent includes industrial and commercial administrative fees and taxes. Hong Kong firms are offered preferential rental terms.

The crystal market is complete with industrial, commercial, taxation, banking and telecommunications facilities. A specialised delivery and distribution company that offers packaging and transportation services is a phone call away.

The county quality and technical supervision bureau has a quality monitoring station at the crystal market. The station is manned by senior geological and rock testing engineers and fakes are fined on a one to ten basis.

Donghai county is only 30 km from Lianyungang, in the northeast of Jiangsu, and is easily accessible. From Lianyungang, it only costs Rmb5 (HK$4.7) to travel by bus and Rmb40 (HK$37.7) to travel by taxi to the Donghai Crystal Market.

The Lianyungang Airport is less than 10 km from the county centre, while the railway station and coach terminal are within 100 m. The Lianyungang-Gansu Railway runs through the county.

The east-west National Highway 310 connects Lianyungang and Tianshui (Gansu) with the north-south National Highway 204, linking Yantai (Shandong) and the Shanghai intersect in Donghai. Goods can also be shipped to various Chinese coastal cities and trading ports abroad from the Lianyungang Port.