E-commerce platforms help generate sparkling opportunities abroad for cultural gemstone businesses.
While diamonds symbolize status and jade whispers of ancient heritage, it is the crystals from a small county in China that are now shining for fans worldwide.
Sourced largely from Donghai county in Jiangsu province — honored by the World Crafts Council as a World Craft City for Crystals — these pieces are cherished not merely as adornments, but as vessels of culture, craftsmanship and contemporary creativity.
Further highlighting their global appeal, these crystals were recently featured in a Wired article titled "23 Ways You're Already Living in the Chinese Century".
Their universal appeal stems from a unique fusion of the harmonizing principles of Chinese fengshui and Western crystal healing practices.
Amethyst is believed to calm the mind in both traditions, citrine to attract wealth and rose quartz to invite love. This cross-cultural belief in their "emotional value" is transforming Chinese crystal jewelry into globally coveted personal talismans.
"The crystal balls, sculpted items such as dragon heads and natural crystal clusters are most popular among customers from Europe and the United States," said Xiang Haifeng, co-founder of Donghai-based Crystaland, which specializes in overseas livestream sales.
Asian customers prefer exquisite, vibrantly hued and dazzlingly brilliant crystal products, he added.
This global fascination is palpable on the ground. Even on a winter weekday, Donghai's crystal markets are bustling.
Crystalline penjing (miniature landscapes) in which amethyst forms distant hills, rose quartz that blooms in the shape of a tree, and citrine carved to resemble a glowing pavilion have emerged as popular choices among consumers.
"We preserve the soul of hand-carving while walking new paths," said Chen Xuhui, an inheritor of Donghai crystal carving, which was named a national intangible cultural heritage in 2021.
Popular items include pendants from his 24 solar terms series crafted from "ghost quartz", with the gem's natural coloring forming misty, landscape-like shapes that evoke the ethereal chill of the solar term Frost's Descent, or shuang jiang, and modern rutilated quartz, or "hair crystal", rings, within which golden needles of rutile shimmer like captured sunlight.
These creations transcend the category of accessory, offering instead a tangible connection between nature's artistry and cultural storytelling.
This artistic alchemy is rooted in both nature and history.
Donghai sits on some of China's richest quartz deposits, yielding not only flawless, clear crystals, but also a number of highly prized varieties, differing in color, translucence and inclusions.
Legends and literature have long been inspired by the region, from Song Dynasty (960-1279) verses by the renowned literatus Su Dongpo, to the famed Donghai Dragon Crystal Palace depicted in the Chinese classic Journey to the West.
In the modern era, the prominent 3.5-metric-ton King Crystal, unearthed locally and now displayed at the Geological Museum of China in Beijing, testifies to the region's mineral generosity.
In the studio of Chen, the Donghai crystal carving inheritor, a piece of quartz is transformed into a vivid crystal teapot, hollowed seamlessly from one gemstone, while other pieces include a flickering golden carp and a mythical, resplendent Monkey King. Each piece can take a month of skilled handiwork, he noted.
"Machines can't perform such reductive work," he said. "The vision, the touch — the soul in the blade — without these, there is no spirit."
The crystal industry now engages some 300,000 people in Donghai, with more than 3,500 processing enterprises producing over 120 million pieces annually.
In the first eight months of 2025, crystal transactions reached 39 billion yuan ($5.6 billion), a year-on-year increase of 27.8 percent, local authorities said. They added that the figure for the whole of 2025 is expected to exceed 60 billion yuan.
While e-commerce, particularly cross-border livestreaming, accounts for a significant portion of that revenue, with 2024 seeing online crystal sales hit 32 billion yuan, China Donghai Crystal City in Jiangsu's Lianyungang — one of the nation's biggest brick-and-mortar trade markets for gemstone products, offering a wide variety of crystals, raw stones, jewelry, crafts and decor — contributed heavily to the county's total 2024 sales revenue of 46 billion yuan.
The online window into the industry has become key to overseas sales.
Customers are increasingly seeking not just a gem, but a story, noted local veteran livestreamer Du Zhiyu.
"Fans now lead with questions about the cultural meaning behind a piece," Du said. Her offerings, from amethyst "crane and pine" carvings to pendants inspired by the 24 solar terms, have brought her a large fan base and equally sizable revenue.
While the gems themselves are forged by the slow march of time — formed, in some cases, over millennia — the industry built around them is speeding into the future.
Chen, the inheritor, said he welcomes advancements, seeing modern technology as the key to sustaining this ancient craft. For him, technology will not replace human skill, but act as an extension of the art.
yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn
