Editor’s Note
This article highlights key hubs in the global jadeite trade, focusing on Mandalay’s major markets and Ruili’s role as a crucial border trading center.
The larger jadeite market and a high-quality market for semi-finished products are located in Mandalay, the second-largest city, southwest of the city center. Here, merchants from all over the world continue to gather daily to purchase jadeite. Additionally, Ruili is a famous border port city between China and Myanmar in Yunnan Province, located in western Yunnan. Ruili is one of the country’s four major jewelry distribution centers and also the largest trading venue for raw jadeite materials. The Ruili port has two channels: one for personnel and another for motor vehicles.
Jadeite rough stone markets are found in places such as the Yangon Jewelry Fair, Mandalay Exchange, Chiang Mai in Thailand, and the China-Myanmar border areas including Ruili, Wanding, Longchuan, Yingjiang, and Tengchong. The jadeite source market exposed by CCTV—Jiaowan Market—is located in Mandalay, the second-largest city, and is the largest jadeite source market within the country.
Mandalay is the largest jadeite market. This market is a mixed bag, with dense crowds and many idle individuals. The advice is to visit only during the daytime, as the area around the jadeite market is not very safe at night, and the open-air trading area is closed in the evening.
Ruili City in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan, borders Myanmar on three sides. It is a jewelry distribution hub for Southeast Asia, and the Ruili Jewelry Market is one of the country’s four major jewelry markets. It is a significant jadeite market globally and a primary source for jadeite jewelers to procure goods. Specific areas within Ruili, such as Jiegao, are highlighted.
Most of the jadeite markets on the China-Myanmar border within China are located in Ruili City, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. Ruili borders Myanmar and is one of the most active economic zones leading to the Southeast Asian and South Asian economic circles, as well as the largest inland port in Southwest China. It has become a region accounting for 50% of the national jadeite sales volume. Jiegao in Ruili is not only a market for jadeite rough stones but also a large national trading market for finished jadeite products.