FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Peter Megaw]

Jordi has asked me to park my modesty for a moment and note that the November-December Rocks & Minerals includes an article I wrote with my wife Allison regarding our visit to the First Changsha Mineral Show. Thanks to Marie (and Jolyon), the article is copiously illustrated, so I will only add a few shots here. We were there from beginning to end...found Dr. John Hou to be a great organizer and host (and evidently photographer) and had a very good time. Attempting to go from zero to a Tucson or Munich Show in one year was pretty ambitious and it was impressive how much of that they managed to pull off. As one might expect there were some hiccups that colored business aspects of the show for some participants but the organizers have confronted these head on and expectations are that the upcoming show will go more smoothly across the board. They get full marks for not sweeping the problems under the rug!

Mineral collecting in China is VERY different from what we're used to in the West and we have a lot to learn about what attracts the Chinese...the successful dealers over time will be those who can meet them at least half way and educate them on western aesthetics. In many ways they are building from the top down so shows there will have to work to attract dealers with beginner level stock to lure in...and create.. beginning collectors. I predict we will be amazed at how fast this happens!

The absolute stroke of genius was the interpreter program. John corralled 125 young women from local colleges to act as one on one interpreters for the visitors. Ours was named Elegance (Elly to us) and she made being there a true delight. I hope they continue that program...and strongly urge anyone who goes to sign up for this program if possible.

Beyond that...check out the latest Rocks & Minerals and after reading the Spann's excellent article on the Hoppel auction, check out our show report.

And check out Jolyon's blog from Changsha featuring many more interesting translations of the signs on delicacies! Sure to whet your appetite.

[edragon]

Hi to everybody. I will try to add some more pics about the first Changsha Show as well as some pics of Changsha city

[Mark Ost]

Beautifully carved mounts in the Chinese tradition of rock collecting.

[Peter Megaw]

Have just returned from 3rd iteration of the China Gem and Mineral Show...held in Chenzhou this year instead of Changsha and now credited to the Province (Hunan) not the host city. Before posting on minerals and the scientific programs...which were pretty good overall, it is worth describing the magnitude of the attendance at this show.

The Show set (what I hope remains) a high-water mark for attendance with somewhere between 200,000 and 350,000 attendees! The City and Province let folks off work and school for 4 days...and closed most other recreational options in the area...so as many people as possible could (should?) go to the show. This meant the show was flooded with people on Saturday and Sunday...you could hardly move! Dealers were overwhelmed (and had most of their serious buyers head for the exits) and responded either by blocking off their booths...or dealing with a tide of humanity washing though their booths, handling and smudging everything. Although getting this many people exposed to minerals is a good thing, it was terrible for business for sellers and buyers...the dealers were 100% preoccupied with keeping their stock safe.

A impressive example of what the Chinese can do, albeit arguably over the top.

The organizers got an earful and I suspect that this will not be repeated next year. If so this will go down in history as the biggest show ever...and perhaps an object lesson in learning when enough is enough

[Chris Rayburn]

Thanks for the quick report Peter. Wow. There's a point of diminishing returns to everything, and it sounds like they definitely exceeded it in show attendance. Brian looks humanity-bound...but able to see where he's going!

[Jordi Fabre]

Some more photos of the Hunan Show kindly supplied by "China Minerals"

Thank you!

[bob kerr]

one dealer in Tucson told me that "the Chinese tend to collect larger specimens" - what an understatement!

bob

[James Catmur]

I have no idea where they put them, as all the apartments I have been in are small!

Thank you for the update - sadly I will miss the Hong Kong show as I will leave just before it happens.

[Jordi Fabre]

The announce of the new 2016 "Changsha" Show

[Peter Megaw]

[Jordi Fabre]

To complete the info about the past "Changsha" Show and with the kind permission of the editors of the fine Russian magazine Mineral Observer (Mineralogical Almanac) we reproduce below the 5 pages of the fine article published by Dr. Andreas Massanek about this Show in the Mineral Observer, Volume 20, issue 2.

Very interesting reportage, thanks Dr. Andreas Massanek, thanks Ludmila Cheshko and Mike Leybov!

[Tobi]

A 1 m wide emerald specimen?! What a cute micromount :-)))