Although China has a long tradition and respect for jade up to the beginning of the 20^th century the methods used to mine and carve jade remain quite primitive.

Jade are distinguished as mountain jade or river jade depending on where they were found,

 Both jadeite and nephrite occurs in metamorphic rock in highly mountainous area that makes jade mining very difficult. In fact large-scale mining did not occur in Taiwan until 1949.

 On the mainland however large qualities of jade were made available as early as the middle eighteen century this resulted in the large and style of jade carving so popular at that time.

 The worlds largest jade piece was carved in this period generally speaking mountain jade are not as lustrous as river jade. But mountain jade can be found in much greater quantities.

 Most jade mines are thus located in the mountains there weathering has split the mountain rock face and small jade fragments are washed down slope by the runoff caused by mountain snow in the spring. Eventually these jade fragments come to rest in riverbeds.

 From the Neolithic period until the end of the 17^th century searching riverbed was the main way of collecting jade.

 After it was washed down stream a piece of jade usually accumulate a crust of other minerals and is scratched and chipped by other rocks rushing by.

 Jadeite usually has this crust while nephrite seldom does the other layer of nephrite might be a different color then its centering due to weathering. Ching dynasty jade carvers made imaginative use of this coloring variation.

 One kind of river jade with naturally deposited beneath the riverbed later is exposed by the rivers current. The other kind of river jade is washed down stream by floods that occur in yearly in May or June.

 The amount of jade collected each year is determines by the size and force of the seasonal floods.

 River jade is also called pick me up jade by local jade collectors.

 Pick me up jade is best collected on an autumn night when a full moons glaze will be reflected by the jades laying below the rivers service.

 If the river runs dry one can still sift through the sand for jade using moonbeams as a natural flashlight.

 Generally jade found in the river is more lustrous then it much more common mountain jade.

 The rushing water of the river sweeps away any impurities and crustaceans leaving the river jade with a deep gloss.

 Mountain jade is a whole different story altogether for it is difficult to tell weather mountain jade is with in rock or rock within jade. If the rocky crust in a potential jade is thick the rock must be cracked open before one is sure that real jade lies with in if the crust is thin one can see right in.

 Even with this in mind it is still hard to identify and takes experience to know where to look expert jade collectors can not only tell weather a rock has any jade hiding inside they can also predict what color the jade will be.