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Jade Factory Carves Out China Showpiece

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It started out as a small jade carving business in Rotorua, but The Jade Factory is hoping to attract up to five million visitors a year to its new development in China. The jade Factory and its retail outlets, now branded as Mountain Jade, has started work on phase one of an 742sq m four-building complex on a 3ha site in Sihui, southeast China.

Stage one of Jade City includes a carving display workshop, exhibition space to showcase jade and jade artists at work, an educational/ cultural exchange centre for visiting jade carves, and manufacturing premises. It will also have exhibition space promoting New Zealand to the Chinese through a range of products – including Rotorua goods. This first phase is expected to open in December this year, to coincide with Sihui’s annual jade fair. It will be followed by a jade museum in 2012 and on-site accommodation for workers, apartments for visiting jade artists and hotel rooms for visitors by 2016.

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Canadian Auction

Thanks to the generosity of an owner of one of Canada's major jade mines, a piece of British Columbian jade fashioned into a stunning necklace by two New Zealanders is to be auctioned to raise money for charity in Vancouver.

Big-hearted donor Tony Ritter had previously seen work by Christchurch jeweller Christine Dower and John Sheehan Junior, and commissioned them to make a piece for the charity auction.

Christine has collaborated with the award-winning young Rotorua jade carver on a number of projects in the past. They include producing one-off pieces shown at the annual jade exhibition in Beijing, China, in November 2009 (where Tony saw their work), and also at the Inhorgenta jewellery tradeshow in Munich, Germany, in 2007.

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Business Links and Expansion in China

If Jin Hong 'Dracky' Zhang had a public profile in China, he would probably be known as one of New Zealand's most enthusiastic ambassadors.

Actively engaged in promoting all things Kiwi in the country of his birth on behalf of the country he has taken to his heart, Dracky Zhang is sincere, passionate and a genuine bonus for New Zealand. Without support or funding from the likes of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise or Tourism New Zealand, Dracky Zhang has nonetheless become an ardent proponent of New Zealand and taken on an unofficial advocacy role for his adopted country in South-East China.

It is not surprising to discover Dracky Zhang feels passionate about New Zealand and Rotorua, and what they have to offer. He came to New Zealand on a visit in 1990 and fell in love with the place. Returning to live later the same year, Dracky and his wife settled in Auckland prior to shifting to Rotorua in 1993. Although the couple are New Zealand citizens (and their two children hold New Zealand passports), the family returned to China "temporarily" in 2007 to explore further business opportunities for the New Zealand company, operating as Jade Factory and Mountain Jade, that Dracky owns and operates in partnership with John Sheehan.

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