Current Time in Donghai, China

Donghai lies in the north of Jiangsu province in eastern China, on the plain between the Yellow Sea coast and the hills of southern Shandong, about fifty kilometres inland from the port city of Lianyungang, of which it forms a county. Its name means eastern sea. The countryside is flat and intensively farmed, dotted with reservoirs, canals and low hills, and the climate is temperate with four clear seasons, hot humid summers and cold dry winters.

The county has a population of well over a million, with a few hundred thousand in the county town itself. Donghai is known throughout China and far beyond for one thing above all: crystal. The hills here contain some of the purest natural quartz in the world, and the town has grown into the largest trading centre for crystal and quartz products anywhere, supplying jewellery, carvings, optical glass, silicon for the electronics industry and material for solar panels. Its markets attract dealers from Brazil, Madagascar, Russia and across Asia.

The region has been settled since antiquity and lay on the frontier between the states of the north China plain, with Han dynasty tombs and ancient city sites found in the district. For most of its history it was a farming county producing wheat, rice, peanuts and vegetables. The discovery and exploitation of its quartz deposits in the twentieth century transformed the local economy, and government support turned a village trade in raw stone into a modern industry of processing, design and export, with wholesale halls, workshops and an internet livestreaming trade that now sells crystal to buyers across China every night.

Visitors come mainly for the crystal city, an enormous market complex where thousands of stalls display everything from raw geodes and rough quartz to polished spheres, carved figures, beads and fine jewellery. A dedicated crystal museum explains the geology, mining history and craft of the region and holds specimens of remarkable size and clarity. Beyond the market, the county offers hot springs at Wenquan, the wooded slopes of nearby hills, reservoirs used for fishing and boating, and easy access to the celebrated Huaguo Mountain outside Lianyungang, the legendary birthplace of the Monkey King in the classic novel Journey to the West.

Local life mixes farming and trade, with a cuisine typical of the Huai river region, milder than the south and centred on wheat noodles, steamed buns, freshwater fish and vegetables. Temple fairs, opera performances and family celebrations follow the traditional calendar, and the crystal trade gives the town an unusually cosmopolitan flavour for a rural county.

The county is well connected, with expressways, a high-speed railway station on the line between Xuzhou and Lianyungang, and the regional airport located within its boundaries. Vocational colleges train workers in gemology, carving and jewellery design, and universities in Lianyungang and Xuzhou serve the wider area.

Donghai deserves its reputation as the crystal capital of China, a working county town where an ancient mineral wealth has created a modern global trade.