Hetian Jade Culture Wall

Hetian Jade Culture Wall

Fine jade comes from Hetian — renowned throughout China for five thousand years. Hetian jade has a history of over 7,000 years in China and forms the main body of the country’s jade culture. As early as the Neolithic Age, the ancestors living at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains discovered Hetian jade and transported and exchanged it eastward and westward as a treasure and a medium of friendship, forming China’s oldest jade transportation route, the “Jade Road,” which later became the predecessor of the “Silk Road.” The over 7,000-year history of Hetian jade exploitation and utilization proves that the first medium of cultural and commercial exchange between China’s borderlands and central plains, and between the East and the West, was neither silk nor porcelain, but Hetian jade. Hetian jade has played an important role in the cultural and economic exchanges between the East and the West. It has always been a symbol of friendship among various ethnic groups in China. To promote Hetian jade culture, in August 2010, the Hotan Prefecture built a large-scale “Hetian Jade Culture Wall” within the Zhejiang Industrial Park in Hotan City (on the western bank of the Yulongkashi River). The wall is [length] meters long and [height] meters high. A total of 19 relief carvings are engraved on both sides of the jade culture wall, with the following contents: 1. Qu Yuan Reciting Poetry; 2. People of Yutian Collecting Jade from the Kunlun Mountains; 3. The Jade Road — Illustration of Hetian Jade’s First Entry into the Central Plains; 4. Official Mining along the Yulong River; 5. King Mu of Zhou Returning East with Jade; 6. Loulan People Making Jade Axes; 7. Lady Fu Hao Admiring Hetian Jade; 8. Craftsmen of Yutian Carving Jade; 9. Envoys from the Central Plains Going to Yutian to Purchase Jade; 10. The King of Yutian in the Tang Dynasty Sending Envoys to Present a Jade Belt; 11. Persian Merchants Trading Jade; 12. People of Yutian Wrapping Jade in Cowhide; 13. Western Region People Transporting Jade Across Vast Distances; 14. Emperor Qianlong Writing a Book to Praise Hetian Jade; 15. Officials Mining Mountain Jade in the Qing Dynasty; 16. Craftsmen from the Central Plains Carving Jade; 17. Hetian Jade Market; 18. The Autonomous Region Presents a Hetian Jade Chess Set to Marshal He Long; 19. Music Resounds from All Directions, with Yutian Among Them. The completion of the “Hetian Jade Culture Wall” will play a positive role in promoting the dissemination and celebration of jade culture, as well as in advancing the development of local tourism.