To Know Taiwan Jades

People regard “beautiful stones” as jades. The jade texture could be mild and hard, translucent with luster. In general, the value of jade is determined by its texture, hardness, transparency and clarity. Jade is defined as nephrite and jadeite in mineralogy. Nephrite is a variety of calcium and magnesium silicate which presents the fibrous structure in tremolite plus actinolite mineral series. The Mohs hardness is 5 ~ 6.5. The specific gravity is 2.9 ~ 3.1.

The Fengtien-Jade from Shoufeng Township, Hualien County in Taiwan, is commonly known as Taiwan Jade.

Taiwan jade can be roughly divided into 3 categories.

1. Color jade green. The best quality is with color emerald green.
2. Rarely there’s a suet-like surface with a waxy luster.
3. The very rare and unique is the cat’s eye jade.

After processing and polishing, there’s a long and thin light like a cat’s eye appears in the middle of the jade. It’s one recognized gem internationally. Jadeite is commonly known as Myanmar jade which belongs to pyroxene minerals with composition sodium aluminum silicate and presents the fibrous structure. It has a Mohs hardness of 7 and the specific gravity is 3.2 ~ 3.3.

To name each one according to its type, water and color. Emerald is the most highly valuable among them. In addition, basically the endemic jade stone from Taiwan is with composition of quartz (SiO2). Roughly could be divided into categories like chalcedony, zonite, Hsiuku Jade and fossil jade by different crystal sizes or mixing impurities.

Color is largely affected by the power of Mother Nature and variations in color bring on more different names. Chalcedony is composed of very fine intergrowths of the minerals and is the hardest form among cryptocrystalline family. It might be combined with other colloid substances and can assume a wide range of colors, like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple, mutton-fat white or translucent gems.

There might be surprising changes after collecting. It is valued because of the scarcity and the production is also decreasing. The most symbolic one is blue chalcedony (also known as Taiwan sapphire) and is worth collecting and treasuring up.

The rose stone is endemic in Taiwan that mostly contains chalcedony homogenization; the scientific name is rhodonite. They are silicate minerals and the hardness is from 5.5 to 6.5. They are all the natural landscape gem stones just like Taiwan Jade for people to collect and treasure.