Buying Pearls In Shanghai [UPDATED]
China Highlights decided to delve deeper into this, given the multitude of queries from our readers and customers. This feature aims to provide a comprehensive take on the best shops and stores, the types of pearls one can find (the variety is overwhelming), approximate price brackets and of course, telling the real from the fake. We hope you find this useful.
buying pearls in shanghai
Pearls have held a strong symbolic status in Chinese culture since ancient times. The pearl has been associated with dragons for the longest time, with the dragon seen as chasing a pearl (perfection and enlightenment). The pearl also resembles the feminine moon, hence associated with beauty and purity. This also makes pearls a symbol of a happy marriage, and is usually a common wedding present. Pearls are also associated with good health.
It is well known that there are hordes of options when it comes to jewelry shops in Shanghai. Especially Pearls. Everyone would warn you to be careful, and to look out for fake pearls. Sometimes even legit or expensive-looking shops are rumored to be selling unauthentic products. So one has to be quite cautious.
We have scoured the city and have listed out the three top spots in terms of variety, quality, reliability and pricing for you to check out. Of course, we have, in this very article, also provided you with a snapshot of basic tests one can carry out to check for authenticity of the pearls. Rest assured, you are looking at the best centers in Shanghai for purchasing pearls right below.
Pearls are beautiful and very symbolic in Chinese and many other cultures. We hope you find success in looking for high quality pearls in Shanghai. If you are interested in a more customized shopping experience, do not hesitate to reach us. We can help you create your very personal and special vacation to match your needs. We also recommend the following articles that would be helpful for you while you plan your Shanghai visit.
The good news is that you will find beautiful pearls in Shanghai which will be cheaper than anyone else in the world. You are exactly where you need to be in the world, when it comes to having access to the best pearls imaginable, which will suit your budget. It is recommended to purchase a beautiful pearl necklace and maybe a pair of earrings to match.
Shanghai South Bund Fabric Market, as the name might suggest, is the ultimate stop for buying fabric. It was opened on April 15, 2006. Three air-conditioned stalls offer a wide range of silk and fabric. The market has all of Shanghai's best tailors under the same roof. Wade through the mountains of fabric perfect for a design of your own creation or for the numerous samples on show. This is a perfect place for the person who enjoys sewing or wants to have beautiful clothes or home accessories custom-made. Remember: bargain hard for a fair price.
Color-shifting, Metallic and Edison pearls are newcomers to the Freshwater pearl market. They often feature some unique, stunning colors found nowhere else in the jewelry industry. From true Royal Purples to Magenta, Coppers and more, these colors are in a class of their own. Still very much a rarity in the pearl marketsoverall,we hope to see much more of these dazzling colors in the future.
I'm looking at buying pearls to take home for gifts. I've learned that Shanghai is known for its freshwater pearls, so I thought I'd get some of those. I know little about pearls, however, and I'm not getting screwed on prices again (my bargaining skills have increased exponentially last few weeks), so I thought I'd come to ask for help.
What kind of pearls give me the best bang for the buck? I've read that in Shanghai I should buy freshwater pearls and not seawater pearls to get as much value for money as possible. Do I go for the low-end pearls or the high-end pearls (in terms of bang for the buck).
How much should I be paying? A sort of price list would be highly appreciated. I've read that I should be paying around 40 kuai for a necklace of low-end freshwater pearls, but once it moves beyond that I don't really have much of a clue. I sat down in a shop yesterday and was offered a low-quality seawater pearl necklace, a low quality pair of freshwater ear rings and a medium/high quality pair of seawater pearl ear rings for 220 kuai. Ended up respectfully walking away because I felt I didn't know enough.
In (ta && ta.queueForLoad ? ta.queueForLoad : function(f, g)document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', f);)(function()ta.trackEventOnPage('postLinkInline', 'impression', 'postLinks-30293844', '');, 'log_autolink_impression');Bali you can get pearls off the beach at Legian and Kuta. The pearls are usually made into pieces of jewellery. Also there's a great jewellers in Double 6 Legian (sorry forgotten it's name) but it's on the left-hand side of the street as you walk up from the beach. The shop sells a lot of pearls and they're very good quality and very reasonably priced.
As the old saying goes, "One who fails to reach the Great Wall is not a true man." Similarly, what a pity it would be if you missed the Oriental Pearl Tower (Dong Fang Ming Zhu) when visiting Shanghai! As one of the most substantial landmarks of the city, the Oriental Pearl Tower is a staple of the Lujiazui skyline - the futuristic facade of Pudong. Confronting the Bund across the river Huangpu river, its 468-meter height and consists of 11 spheres of different sizes, inspired by the image of "pearls falling into a jade plate".
"It's the people you know, that open these doors and make these connections for you," McGraw said. "Yes, I can play violin, but it's the people I've met along the way that have allowed me to travel and to have the opportunity to play an orchestra in China and to gather the pearls."
"It's really hands on and some of them wait for me and they say 'look, here's what we've harvested this year,'" she said. "I really get fresh crop each year and so they'll save amazing pearls for me."
It will not be an exaggeration if you say that the Pearl & Jewelry Market in Shanghai is the perfect place to buy pearls. This market is a sea of vendors who sell some of the best specimens of river pearls, crystals, semi-precious stones, and plastic beads. So you can get a wide range of jewelry from the expensive variety to cheap imitation stuff. You can even select your favorite stones and get them strung in customized designs and patterns. The vendors offer free shipping outside China for bulk orders. Of course, some amount of bargaining skills are required to get the best pieces at affordable rates.
China's oyster beds remain among the world's most fertile grounds for pearls, of both the saltwater and freshwater variety. Seawater pearls are usually more expensive than the freshwater gems, but in both cases the qualities to look for are roundness, luster, and size. The bigger, rounder, and shinier the pearl, the better (and the more expensive). Here are a few ways to detect fakes, even if most shoppers don't bother:
How could one possibly miss out on the freshwater pearls when in China, more specifically when in Shanghai; where the iconic Pearl Tower resides. Pearls from China are the best gift to give a loved one, be it either authentic for the deep pocketed or the unauthentic, pearls from Shanghai are considered invaluable for the symbolism they carry. Rooted deeply in the Chinese culture, pearls signify perfection, purity, love and beauty, while also being associated with good health. Such a meaningful present can not only bring happiness, but also touch hearts.
The oldest Chinese history book, the Shui ging, mentions "strings of not completely round pearls" that were given to the great emperor Yu in the third millennium BC. Thus natural firewater or saltwater pearls were collected and used a long time ago in China. The Chinese are considered today as the inventors of the cultured pearl. Regular small production of started as early as the 12th century. But Chinese ancient pearl cultivating techniques had never made pearl industry reach a height, and then came to a full stop at the end of 1900s. this marked by the disappearance of saltwater pearl-producing oysters in Hepu, Guangxi, China.
Before the creation of cultured pearls in the early 1900s, natural pearls were so rare and expensive that they were reserved almost exclusively for the noble and very wealthy. Inspired by Chinese ancient pearl cultivating techniques, the Japanese discovered the secret of pearl culturing and created the heart of modern pearl culturing technology: inserting a piece of oyster epithelial membrane (the lip of the mantle tissue) with the nucleus of a shell or piece of metal into the oyster's body. The mantle causes the tissue to form a pearl sack. The sack will then secrete nacre to coat the nucleus and create a pearl. Since 1916 pearl culturing technology has been successfully developed in Japan and shared worldwide. Eventually, cultured seawater pearls and cultured freshwater pearls became mass-produced. This makes pearl jewelry affordable and available to virtually anyone in the world.
China started culturing freshwater pearls in 1968. It had all the resources that Japan lacked: a huge land mass; countless available lakes, rivers, and irrigation ditches; a limitless low-cost work force; and an almost desperate need for hard currency. Chinese production of freshwater pearls very soon startled the gem world. But China's reputation as a producer among the public remained trivial because Chinese freshwater pearls were call "Rice Pearls" for their odd shape and low quality, which did not leave a good impression on the minds of the consumer.
As the Biwa production in Japan diminished, China filled the vacuum. World's freshwater pearl production is overwhelmingly from China. But Chinese freshwater pearls could in no way compete with the best from Lake Biwa by 1980s. Another reason is , there is still no brand name of Chinese freshwater pearls on international pearl market. Fortunately, the bulk production of Chinese freshwater pearls is going steadily beyond that of commercial quality since then. The new qualities and colors from China are indication of better things to come. Chinese are striving to build brand name internationally for their pearls. 041b061a72