In 2007, Xu Feng, a jade merchant from Yangzhou, was suffocated by the rising price of jade in his locality. When he passed by Bengbu, this transportation city left him spellbound during their accidental encounter: several enormous "jade villages" were right before his eyes.
Nowadays, Bengbu, which has no jade mines, conceals "jade villages" and "jade streets", more than 2000 jade processing workshops, and 50,000-100,000 people who make a living from jade. In Anhui, when people mention jade ware, they naturally associate it with the jade dragon unearthed at the Lingjiatan site. However, relevant surveys show that in the 30 years since the reform and opening up, the amount of jade artworks and archaic-style jade produced in Bengbu is greater than the total amount of jade produced in China in the last 8000 years. Bengbu has already become one of the largest...