The Taipei Jade Market

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Jaded on Tomb Sweeping Weekend

I'm jaded-- but not as jaded as I could be. The Taipei Jade Market opens every Saturday at the corner of Renai and Jianguo Rds. If you are envisioning a street corner like one in the US with some card tables thrown up looking like a Saturday morning yard sale, you're in for a shock. First, the corner is the corner of two eight lane roads. Second, the market is actually under an elevated highway. More than five hundred dealers have come together to form an association and formalize the administration of what would otherwise be wasted public space. A generator, lights and wiring, spaces marked off, port-a-potties, and even a small temple have been set up. Police and private security help direct traffic and surging crowds to cross wide roads halfway to reach the jade market.

click HERE to see the complete photo album of the visit to the jade market and click HERE to see the complete set of photo albums of my visits to Taiwan both this year and in 2005

Entrance to the market. Note the heavy steel girders overhead. All the tables would be full if it were not a holiday weekend.

They even have a temple--see the red and chrome structure to the right in the background, at which the dealers can pray for good fortune.

Buddhist monks, who live by charity, wander the jade market. People buying the many jade Buddhas and amulets often drop a few coins in the "begging bowls," particularly if they would like a blessing upon the new jade Buddha they have bought as a charm. The monk in the photo below seems to have come directly out of central casting. Younger monks following him just shook their heads in amazement at how well this old fellow did. Well worth clicking on the photos here to see the enlargements. Note he has an ID card clipped to his front.

a variety of antique stone chops

A carved dragon to top a larger more formal chop at Mr. Ho's chop booth. Below, the elvin and charming Mr. Ho himself who does NOT use a computer to carve seals (chops). He has brought all his seals and tools large and small on the scooter barely visible behind him.

Then, if they want to visit the EVEN LARGER flower market further along the area under the elevated highway, crowds cross the roads again to enter a space more than a third of a mile long and as well appointed and much better stocked than any mega garden store in the States. Bonsai and orchid dealers have areas next to exotic fruit vendors and makers of all sorts of gardening tools. Ceilings are so high here, trees large enough to haul away on a flat bed are for sale. There are stands selling all sorts of teas to drink and more port-a-potties are set up at the this market, too.
If you just can't find what you need or want at the jade market or the flower market, you cross another broad street to enter The Artists' Corner. This is the final space, about 100 yards long, where the elevated highway comes back to earth. Here, there are enough day glow paintings on velvet to outfit every trailer park in North Carolina, along with sellers of silk cloth, tea pots, pirated DVDs and CDs, and purveyors of a very broad definition of the term "what not."

Below, the HUGE hall under the highway encompassing the flower market.

Below, a serious amateur jade dealer dickers with a buyer.
Below, typical shot of dealers and tables crowds were down one weekend. These fellows sell pink carved coral and white carved coral. Like the carved ivory sold here, probably not legal for EU or North American residents to bring back.

All the markets seemed crowded enough, but one vendor in the jade market told me it was a very light crowd and many, many dealers were not here. Crowds and vendors alike had gone to the countryside for "tomb sweeping." April 3, 4, and 5 are the days of the festival of tomb sweeping. It is such a large event that a sign in the main train station advises customers all seating is reserved tickets only. Unlike the Latin American Day of the Dead, this seems to have a more practical bent. Everybody packs picnic lunches and goes out to do upkeep on relatives' tombs. Certainly incense is burned and prayers said at the tomb, but, for the most part, it's yard work and visiting. People return to their hometowns for these events and so, see old friends, neighbors, old school mates, etc. who have also come back to the graveyard for tomb sweeping. Taipei City ran hundreds of special shuttle buses at the rate of sometimes one a minute from the city to the large cemeteries; tools such as clippers, scythes, etc. were provided free at the cemeteries as well as free baby sitting services. I can't imagine an American city doing that for a public holiday. I don't know if tomb sweeping always coincides with Palm Sunday, but both events are determined by the lunar calendar.

A typical Taiwanese tomb overlooking the tea fields in Muzha, Taipei
To see more photos of a typical Christian-and-everybody-else graveyard click the photo

The jade market sells plenty of doo-dads for tourists and a sprinkling of what appear to be serious amateur jade dealers catering to the serious amateur jade collectors. The really high end jade carvings selling for tens of thousands of dollars (US) never appear at a market like this, the grand masters of carving having their established clientele and their time being well booked into the future.
But there are chop carvers, even wood carvers and sellers of exquisite tea pots.

Above; batches of jade charms tied to red "Lucky knots" They are tied together in batches of ten and dealers ask about $2 a string, so you can argue them down to about $1 a string. A batch of ten might cost as little as $8 to $12 depending on your skills. Click on the photo to see my album of jade market photos and to download some photos like this one or the photo at the top of the email to use as computer wallpaper.
Below, an ivory carver displays wares.

Carvings of ink stones and other calligraphy supplies are on sale. Coral carving and items made from a curious form of Indonesian tube like coral are used to make the handles of ink brushes, pens, and other small items. Several vendors sold small carvings made from pink coral.

Red or pink coral carvings for sale. Click on the photo to see an enlarged version

A table of offerings a cut or two above the rank tourists offerings. Perfume bottles in stone, chopstick rests and cases, stone bowls, etc.

Below, more typical of the tables offering low end stuff for tourists.

Click on the photo of a carving below to see an enlarged version. Amazingly to Western eyes, this is not particularly good jade carving.

Rock collectors come here. Not the sort of rock collectors we might have in the West with a geologist's bent, but collectors of interesting shapes, rocks worn by time into designs of elegance and the only reworking of them has been the discerning eye of the collector and perhaps mounting it on an elegant stand.
Crystals are believed to concentrate auspicious powers. Many geodes and quartz crystals are sold to small businessmen to place near their cash registers.

Gift wrapping is very rare here. Gifts are given in elaborate gift bags or or in these very ornamental gift boxes made of wood and silk. This man specializes in selling a box that will make your gift of jade look special.

The most interesting rock collections--and I regret not having any good photos of these--are pink landscape rocks. The best ones are reputed to come from eastern Taiwan. (Eastern Taiwan, by the way, is the world's second largest producer of high quality marble after Italy, but I shall cover that in a later travel letter when we go to the city of Hualian in a few weeks.)
Rocks are sawed in sections and the exposed surfaces polished. A delicate, lacy interplay of black and white veins across the pink background often form patterns surprisingly like brush paintings of landscapes done in the Chinese style. It is rather like staring at the grain in wood or wood knots to see a "face." One almost never sees a face, but one almost always sees a landscape of trees and mountains, a possibly, animals and small figures, in the polished surface of a landscape rock.

The fellow below is actually selling rocks to be carved, rather than simply to be admired.

Below, a view of the market showing the girders holding the highway overhead and the access roads running along each side.

Below, with business slow, some dealers play a game of Chinese chess. It is very popular. Pieces move on the intersections not the squares rather like the game of go, but this more closely resembles a complex version of Western chess.

An incense burner. Well worth clicking on the photo to see a greatly enlarged version.