Located 15 minutes by trishaw south of our hotel is the famed Jade Market. Think of wall street for precious stones (although most vendors were buying and selling jade). What a cool place. We walked past the "foreigner's pay $1 to enter" sign as we were likely one of the only foreigners this day. The market had hundreds of tables with "buyers" and independent "sellers" (with stones in hand) going up asking for a price. Merchants from China had been at our hotel for months to buy to grade stones. Additionally, each stage of the refinement process was represented at the market: folks refining rough stones, polishing, carving and of course buying and selling. I didn't ask prices because I have no clue but I'd read up a little more next time and try my hand at buying something, all seemed like top-grade jewels.
I got a kick at all the nuns and monks walking around to collect rice and kyats from those good-deed seeking buddhists.
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| Jade bracelet for sale |
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| Nun collecting alms |
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| Jade for sale, varying quality and color |
5 years, not one comment! lol.
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