Xunke Agate

Xunke Agate

Xunke agate is a protected geographical indication product.

　　Xunke agate is produced in Baoshan Township, Xunke County, Heilongjiang Province. This stone is hard in texture, with a hardness of up to 8 degrees; it features richly colored, lustrous, and smooth hues, offering a wide variety of colors such as pink, red, dark red, apricot yellow, and light green. It has good transparency and large block sizes, with abundant reserves. Xunke agate can be used to craft various artworks such as figures, flowers, wine glasses, and necklaces — all exuding a crystal-clear brilliance with vibrant colors.

　　 Xunke agate stones are mostly purplish-red and block-shaped, found within loose gravel layers of the Tertiary Sunwu Formation. They are mainly distributed in the Ayan River basin of Xunke County, and Baoshan Township is named for its abundant and high-quality agate production. The edges, corners, and irregular protrusions of the raw agate stones are smoothly rounded, and even the flat surfaces of the stones bear pits and hollows caused by years of wind erosion and rain exposure when they were exposed at the surface. Especially those excavated from local soil layers deeper than 10 meters have the best color and quality. In 1978, a 32.4-kilogram water agate was mined here, along with an extra-large piece weighing as much as 100 kilograms.

　　 Within Baoshan Township of Xunke County, there is now a county-level nature reserve for agate stones covering an area of 1,352 hectares, primarily aimed at protecting natural agate resources.

　　The production area of Xunke agate covers the administrative regions of two townships currently under the jurisdiction of Xunke County, Heilongjiang Province: Baoshan Township and Kelin Township.