The annual crystal transaction volume in Donghai County, Jiangsu Province exceeds 40 billion yuan——
The "Crystal City" dresses up the "crystal" color life (small commodities and big industries⒅)
Reporter Shi Chang
Donghai County, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province is an important distribution center for crystals in the world. It also has a resounding nickname: "Crystal Capital of the World". In Donghai County, which has a population of 1.24 million, there are about 300,000 people engaged in crystal processing, marketing and supporting services, and the annual crystal transaction volume exceeds 40 billion yuan. Thanks to the development of cross-border e-commerce under the "Belt and Road" initiative, the annual crystal e-commerce transaction volume in Donghai County reaches 26 billion yuan. Driven by the more than 18,000 crystal online stores in Donghai County, 350,000 crystal products are sold from Donghai County to the world through express delivery every day.
Why did this place become the “Crystal Capital of the World”? The reporter came to Donghai County to find out.
The “World Supermarket” of Crystal Products
Walking into the East China Sea Crystal City, if there is no one to guide you, people with a poor sense of direction can easily get lost. China East China Sea Crystal City, covering an area of 450,000 square meters, is currently the largest and most comprehensive professional crystal trading market in China. It is also an important distribution center for world crystals. It has 3 trading venues and more than 7,000 crystal merchants and companies.
Industrial agglomeration is initially due to resource agglomeration. The reporter learned that Donghai County has about 300,000 tons of crystal reserves in an area of 1,500 square kilometers, accounting for more than 70% of the country. The silicon content is as high as 99.99%, and both storage capacity and quality rank first in the country. In 2016, Donghai County was awarded the title of "World Crystal Capital" by UNESCO.
But the "Crystal Capital of the World" has already embarked on a path of transformation. Under the ecological red line of protective development of ore resources, crystal mining is no longer carried out locally. Donghai people go abroad, purchase raw crystal stones from all over the world, and transport them back to Donghai County for centralized processing and creative research and development.
"In the Donghai crystal industry, everyone knows Yang Zhengshan." A local said. In 1991, Yang Zhengshan, a farmer in Fangshan, Donghai County, borrowed 20,000 yuan to go to Vietnam to look for crystals. From 1993 to 1994 alone, he visited Vietnam six times in two years and transported dozens of tons of crystals back to Donghai County, which was the first time for Donghai people to go abroad to buy crystal raw materials.
Han Qiuchen is also one of the overseas "crystal-hunting" people. Even though he was born in 1990, he can be regarded as a "veteran" in the crystal industry. He has been in the industry for seven years since 2017. He goes out three or four times a year, each time for about 40 days. In August last year, Han Qiuchen brought back two containers of rough crystal stones from Brazil.
"Because Donghai County has always been rich in crystals, it started early to go overseas to 'purchase crystals', seizing market opportunities and forming a comprehensive crystal processing industry chain, so it can maintain and carry forward the brand of Donghai Crystal." Han Qiuchen said.
Today, more than 6,000 people from Donghai County have traveled to nearly 100 countries and regions including Brazil, Uruguay, Madagascar, and Zambia, and are active in all aspects of crystal collection, processing, transportation, and trading.
On Independence Street in the center of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, Madagascar's traditional market - "Zoma" is located in the square of this street. Crystal is one of the most important trading items in the market. In the Independence Street block alone, there are more than 300 Donghai County businessmen stationed at "Taojing".
Nowadays, every once in a while, a container filled with crystal stones drifts at sea for more than 40 days. After arriving at the port, it is under the supervision of Lianyungang Customs and then transported to Donghai County, where it enters a processing factory that produces crystal products. According to statistics, about 40,000 tons of crystal rough stones come from Brazil, Madagascar, Zambia and other countries every year, and are made into various crystal products by Donghai County craftsmen. The raw crystal stones are carved, polished and packaged in Donghai County, and become high-quality products sold all over the world.
"It is no exaggeration to say that our Donghai County is the 'world supermarket' of crystal products," said Zhang Zhanghu, a reporter from the Donghai County Financial Media Center who has long been concerned about the development of the crystal industry.
“People in Donghai are very enthusiastic about learning foreign languages”
"Hello everyone, welcome to my live stream. (Hello everyone, welcome to my live stream.)" Night falls, but it is the busiest moment for the anchor. Unlike live broadcast rooms in many places in China, the live broadcasts here are mostly in English. Other national languages.
Late one night not long ago, anchor Jiang Qiuyue started a three-hour live broadcast in English at the Donghai Crystal Cross-border E-commerce Trading Center. "What's the price of the crystal jewelry just shown?" A customer from the United States left a message on the screen in the live broadcast room asking. "370 US dollars." Jiang Qiuyue quickly calculated and quoted the price. "It will be delivered to you in about 14 days."
Across the small mobile phone screen, East China Sea crystals travel across the ocean and are sold online all over the world. Wang Na, deputy general manager of Donghai Crystal Industry Development Group Co., Ltd., said that in the past, most crystal crafts were sold overseas through dealers or offline sales at exhibitions. Today, the development of the Internet has opened Donghai County’s window to the world.
The Donghai Crystal Cross-border E-commerce Trading Center was established in 2019 to create the "Jingmaotong Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Digital Service Platform" to focus on solving product supply chain, cross-border logistics, export customs declaration, and foreign exchange collection for cross-border e-commerce merchants. 10 key link issues such as foreign exchange settlement and cross-border network, provide support on matters related to the cross-border e-commerce industry chain, establish a full-process comprehensive service system of online platforms and offline windows, open up the whole process, the whole chain, and the all-round trade channels, and help Cross-border e-commerce small and medium-sized enterprises are "going overseas".
What if someone wants to live broadcast foreign trade but doesn’t understand the language? "People in Donghai are very enthusiastic about learning foreign languages. We compiled the foreign language words and sentences commonly used in our early live broadcasts into materials and provided training to villagers and anchors. After passing the 'language barrier', and the quality of Donghai crystals is good , and the sales quickly opened up." said Xue Yangyang, the head of Jiejing Company, which is responsible for operating the Donghai Crystal cross-border e-commerce trading center.
Donghai County has also formulated and promulgated a series of policies and documents to support the development of the e-commerce industry, such as the "E-commerce Development Plan", "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of E-commerce", and "Policy Opinions on Supporting the High-Quality Development of E-commerce" to guide the establishment of Crystal Live E-commerce Industrial parks, crystal e-commerce mass entrepreneurship and innovation bases, "maker spaces" and other creative platforms provide zero-threshold entry and one-stop services for entrepreneurs.
Li Zhongliang is a beneficiary of the "zero threshold entry" policy. Born in 1990, he accidentally came to Donghai Crystal Cross-border E-commerce Trading Center in 2019. He was very excited when he heard that he could use the supply of goods here to ship goods and start a business with just a small mobile phone. "At that time, there were already too many people working in the domestic crystal market, and the overseas market was still a blue ocean with promising prospects." Li Zhongliang told reporters, "The first time I went to the Donghai Crystal Cross-border E-commerce Trading Center, I attended the trading center in the afternoon. I went to the organized e-commerce training." Today, his daily turnover through live broadcasts is nearly US$1,000.
At present, there are hundreds of crystal cross-border e-commerce trading centers and crystal live broadcast bases in Donghai County, with more than 50,000 direct e-commerce employees and more than 18,000 online stores. In 2023, the transaction volume of Donghai County's crystal industry will exceed 40 billion yuan, e-commerce online retail sales will increase by 15.6%, and express delivery volume will increase by 35%.
“Driving more villagers to become rich”
Walking into Quyang Town, not far from the county seat, the sound of crystal cutting floats on the road.
Breaking, rough grinding, shaping, polishing... In the workshop of Xiangju Crystal Co., Ltd., Liu Lingfeng, a famous crystal engraving master and national technical expert, is sitting in front of a high-speed grinding machine, holding a water gun in one hand and a drill in the other. The live broadcast is going on, "Our crystal creation and engraving is to make the imperfections of the crystal perfect, and show its best side to everyone through polishing, sandblasting and other craftsmanship."
Liu Lingfeng is not from Donghai County, but came here from Fujian because of its advantages as the world's crystal distribution center. With the diligence of Donghai's overseas "crystal-hunting" people and the outstanding skills of crystal carving masters from all over the country, crystal has become the golden signature of Donghai County, with countless practitioners. However, the huge capital investment and the entrepreneurial spirit of entrepreneurs have also created certain thresholds for this industry.
"Can more villagers get rich?" With this idea in mind, Zhao Zhonggang, currently the party branch secretary and village committee director of Xingxi Village, Quyang Town, started his business in 2015. At that time, the village was mostly home to workshops that processed large-scale crystal carvings. The crystal "leftovers" thrown away by crystal processing companies were piled up and scattered around the village, affecting the look and feel and wasting resources. "At that time, I came up with the idea of secondary processing of crystal scraps." Zhao Zhonggang said.
He uses crystal scraps as raw materials to make natural crystal pillows, crystal mattresses, cushions and other products. "We put crystal gravel into the crystal pillow, which can achieve the effect of keeping warm in winter and cool in summer." Zhao Zhonggang introduced. The first batch of products was a success, and Zhao Zhonggang turned his attention to fashionable furniture products such as crystal table lamps and wall lamps.
"With the continuous expansion of sales, more than 100 farmers have been employed at home," Zhao Zhonggang said, "including people with disabilities." A pair of disabled brothers in the village praise Zhao Zhonggang as a lucky star when they meet everyone. The two brothers had been relying on government subsidies to survive because of their impaired vision. Zhao Zhonggang insisted on cultivating their crystal grinding skills, which not only allowed them to escape poverty smoothly, but also now have savings.
In 2019, Zhao Zhonggang seized the opportunity of live broadcasting and took the lead in building an e-commerce live broadcast base in the village, forming an entrepreneurial team, and conducting e-commerce knowledge training for young people in surrounding areas who were interested in live broadcast, and led 85 people to achieve e-commerce employment. Villagers' yards have become traffic entrances. In 2023, Zhao Zhonggang helped villagers in the town sell various crystal products for more than 65 million yuan.
More and more young people are coming back. Zhao Jifeng is a native of Quyang Town. After working abroad for many years, he joined the entrepreneurial craze in his hometown. In 2021, he became the operations manager of the Crystal Village E-commerce Pioneer Park. "He can earn an income of about 10,000 yuan per month and can also take care of his family."
"A small stone paved the way to enrich the people. Although it is a remote village, it is connected to large markets at home and abroad. In the future, the crystal colorful life of our village will definitely get better and better." Zhao Zhonggang is full of confidence. (People's Daily Overseas Edition)