Shangluo Marble

Shangluo Marble

　　First developed in Diancang Mountain, Dali County, Yunnan Province, China, it is named "Dali marble" because Diancang Mountain is located within Dali County. Marble has a wide range of uses and is an essential decorative material in many high-end buildings. In China’s capital, the Forbidden City in Beijing, the ornamental columns at Tiananmen, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou, as well as many upscale and luxurious buildings and hotels, are inlaid with dazzlingly beautiful marble. Marble is not only a precious building material but also an ideal raw material for many famous sculptures and exquisitely crafted artworks.

　　The Shangluo region boasts abundant marble reserves and a rich variety of patterns and colors. According to surveys since 1984, Danfeng County has around 20 mining sites, with an estimated reserve of 2.5 million cubic meters. Major patterns include cloud-like, banded, sesame black, white, black, cream, red, and agate veins. Zhen’an County has marble reserves exceeding 100 million cubic meters, including fifteen varieties such as Golden Orange No.1, Chrysanthemum Yellow No.2, Rosin Yellow, Starry No.3, Black Jade, Dan White Jade, and Auspicious Snow. Zhen’an County’s total marble reserves are approximately 230–500 billion cubic meters. By color, they are categorized into seven types: white, gray, red, black, green, seven-color, and six-juice. By type, there are fifteen kinds: Ink Jade, Ink Black, Jet Black, Mugwort Green, Silver Lotus, Golden Yellow, Snowflake, Peach Blossom Red, Moist Red, Rose Red, Sunset Red, Light Hibiscus, Gray Cloud, and Luku Crystal. The shapes feature patterns such as shrimp, fish, birds, beasts, mountains, water, flowers, grass, and amber, all exquisitely beautiful. Luonan marble reserves amount to 4.73 million cubic meters, divided into white and variegated types. White marble consists of pure calcite or pure dolomite formed from granular crystal aggregates, comparable in quality to Han White Jade.