China will have over 20 million people in the jewelry industry by 2005, said an Li Jinsong,vice-chairman of the China Gem and Jade Association.

Over 30,000 jewelry shops are in operation since China has opened gem and jade market in the major cities since 1983 when there were very few people working in the industry, according to Xinhua News Agency. China now has over eight million people working in the industry,a sharp increase from 600,000 in 1991, Li said, adding that China's jewelry trade volume in 1999 reached 80.6 billion yuan (9.7 billion U.S. dollars), with an annual increase of 10 to 20 percent in the past decade.

Li also pointed out that China needs experts who can appraise jewelry and his association has opened the country's first non-government run jewelry college to train such people.