Incomplete statistics indicated that Chinese people bought 12 billion US dollars worth of jewelry last year, ranking fifth in the world, as Chinese can spend more on jewelry by achieving a higher standard of living.
A high-ranking official from Hong Kong-based Tse Sui Leun (TSL)Jewelry Corp, which entered the mainland market in 1993, recently said he was satisfied with sales in the mainland.
Besides traditional pure gold, platina and diamond jewelry are also becoming popular. China imported more than 40 tons of Platina,or 55 percent of world output last year, according to Liu Shengyu,General Manager of the China Jewelry Import and Export Corporation.
But China still lags behind in jewelry design, said Liu Shengyu.So the popular modus operandi in the industry now is "foreign-designed but home processed". TSL for example, has set up processing bases in the mainland, but all its designs are from Hong Kong.
Fan Yu in south China's Guangdong province is the biggest jewelry processing center in China, with more than 200 jewelry processing companies and 40,000 employees.
( Xinhua News Agency September 2, 2002 )
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