The Initial Appearance of Jade in Minfeng
Yekik Township in Minfeng County is a township on the edge of the Kunlun Mountains. After driving for more than 20 kilometers, you arrive at Segzi Village, which is located at the outlet of a river from the Kunlun Mountains. This is the first village I found with jade collectors as I traveled from east to west into the Hotan area. A Uyghur man who could speak a few sentences of Chinese enthusiastically pointed out several large stones by the roadside at the entrance of the village. He said they were all transported out from the mountains. Soon, many curious onlookers gathered around. Seeing the skeptical look on the face of this "big boss" (driving an off-road vehicle and wearing strange clothes) who had come from afar, everyone hurriedly fetched water to wash off the dirt from the stones. It turned out that these were stone-like objects containing jade, each weighing about a ton.