County in E China's Jiangsu takes crystal commerce global via livestreaming

"Hello everyone, welcome to my livestream." At 9 p.m. on July 25, Jiang Qiuyue started a livestreaming session at the Donghai Crystal Cross-border E-commerce Trading Center in Donghai county, Lianyungang city, east China's Jiangsu Province. Her livestreams are part of a broader push to boost the county’s burgeoning crystal industry overseas.

Jiang, who majored in English at university, has gathered over 5,000 followers on the platform one year after her graduation. Her followers mainly hail from countries along the Belt and Road.

A total of 1,623 livestreaming hosts work at the Donghai Crystal Cross-border E-commerce Trading Center, speaking foreign languages during their shows. By promoting homemade crystal products, they help Donghai crystals reach foreign markets.

Jiang Qiuyue promotes crystal products during a livestreaming session at the Donghai Crystal Cross-border E-commerce Trading Center, Donghai county, Lianyungang city, east China's Jiangsu Province. (People's Daily Online/Fan Yao)

Donghai is the first county to the west of the eastern bridgehead of the New Eurasian Land Bridge and is also a major crystal-producing area in China. Thirty-seven kinds of mineral resources have been discovered in the area, including 300,000 tonnes of crystal reserves and 300 million tonnes of quartz reserves.

The county hosts more than 3,400 crystal manufacturing enterprises, annually producing 30 million pieces of crystal jewelry and 5 million crystal handicrafts. Over 300,000 people are employed in crystal manufacturing, sales, and related sectors in Donghai.

"Our products are sold to many countries in Asia and Europe, and the sales figures are good," said Song Feng from Xingxi village in Quyang town of Donghai. Song attributed the growth of the crystal industry in Donghai to thriving cross-border e-commerce enabled by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

In 2020, Zhao Zhonggang, Party chief of Xingxi village, spearheaded the construction of a crystal e-commerce industry park and several cross-border e-commerce livestreaming training bases in the village. After receiving skills training, local villagers became livestreaming hosts.

"The annual output value of the crystal industry in the village has surpassed 1 billion yuan ($139 million), including more than 300 million yuan from cross-border e-commerce," said Zhao.

Zhong Haibing, deputy director of the E-commerce Association of Donghai, began hosting cross-border e-commerce livestreaming sessions in 2016. His team now generates an annual sales volume of between 70 and 80 million yuan.

A man works with crystal. (People's Daily Online/Fan Yao)

Since 2019, an increasing number of businesspeople, university graduates, and those who used to work overseas have returned to Donghai and become livestreaming hosts. Over the past few years, Donghai county has cultivated more than 6,000 livestreaming practitioners. In 2022, the sales volume of crystal products exceeded 34 billion yuan in Donghai, including 3.5 billion yuan via cross-border e-commerce.