Hetian Jade Culture Wall

　　Fine jade comes from Hetian – renowned across 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 as a treasure and medium of friendship to the east and west, forming China’s oldest jade transport route — the “Jade Road,” which later became the precursor to the “Silk Road.” The more than 7,000-year history of Hetian jade exploitation and use proves that the first medium of cultural and trade exchange between China’s border regions and the 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 cultural and economic exchanges between the East and the West. Hetian jade has always been a symbol of friendship among all ethnic groups in China. To promote Hetian jade culture, in August 2010, the Hotan Prefecture built a large-scale “Hetian Jade Culture Wall” in the Zhejiang Industrial Park of Hotan City (on the western bank of the Yurungkash River), measuring meters in length and meters in height. The two sides of the jade culture wall are carved with a total of 19 relief panels, depicting the following themes: 1. Qu Yuan Reciting Poetry; 2. People of Yutian Mining Jade in the Kunlun Mountains; 3. The Jade Road – A Diagram of Hetian Jade First Entering the Central Plains; 4. Official Mining Along the Yulong River; 5. Emperor Mu of Zhou Transporting Jade Eastward; 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 Purchasing Jade in Yutian; 10. King of Yutian of 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 to Praise Hetian Jade; 15. Qing Dynasty Officials Mining Mountain Jade; 16. Jade Craftsmen of the Central Plains Carving Jade; 17. Hetian Jade Market; 18. Autonomous Region Presents a Hetian Jade Chess Set to Marshal He Long; 19. Music Resounds from All Directions, and Yutian Is 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.