The 50th Anniversary of a Beloved Gem

Much of pearling world missed an important anniversary last year – the 50^th anniversary of the Chinese freshwater pearl industry.

It was 1962, when a Chinese professor by the name of Xiong Daren of the Fisheries Institute of Zhanjiang conducted the first experiments culturing freshwater pearl mussels that mimicked the production of pearls in Lake Biwa Japan, but with a native Chinese shell. That same year, freshwater pearl farms in the Jiangsu province began growing pearls using Daren’s methods

Read more on Jewellery Net Asia
by Jeremy Shepherd

Harvesting freshwater pearls