Luc Yen – The unique gem market in Vietnam

In Luc Yen district, Yen Bai province, there is a unique market in the country where people trade only one product – gemstones.

The market has had a history of 25 years. Luc Yen gem market is open at a beautiful corner of a lake in Yen The town, Luc Yen district. The market works in just several hours in every morning. Depending on reasons and weather, the market can take place sooner or later, but at about 6.30 am there are sellers in the market. They slowly arrange their stalls to be not complicated, but very simple. The market contains about over 20 stalls. According to the sellers, gems are gathered from the persons who have gone to the mountains … and if having time, craftsmen will arrange the gems to make pendants of rings, necklaces, earrings, etc… Gems are also used as materials for making a gem picture, which are sold in the unit of kilogram or gram. Each blue, red, purple, yellow, white, black gems have different sizes and shapes and is supervised and considered by the customers who are conversant with gems. The prices are announced depending on the type of gem which can be ten thousands, hundreds of thousand or a million, tens of millions dong.

However, the succession of transaction is decided by the bargaining process. Besides gem traders and makers seeking materials, there are many people who have heard about the gem market then come to this to see and to buy some products as souvenirs. After two to three hours, the market is closed. The owner of a gem stall in Luc Yen market said that every early morning, hundreds of local residents went to the forest, walking along the stream, picking up each gem. After a long time, the gem became rare so people had to go further to the caves to gather them.

Nowadays, people find it hard to seek for gems in the cave; many of them must use machines to dig deeply on the mountains then wash the soil for gems. If people find original sapphire and ruby gems (which are big, transparent, right color, not cracked), they can sell them with the price of several hundred millions dong. However, they usually get the color gems including ruby, sapphire which have lower quality, being crushed and small, used for making pictures. To get the suitable color gems (especially black gems for drawing hair, blue ones for illustrating the color of water), they must wander in the mountains for a month.

Since ancient times, Luc Yen was dubbed the “land of gems.” The most valuable stones in Vietnam were exploited here. Luc Yen boasts to have a red ruby which is preserved as national treasure. It is named “Vietnam Star” and is the biggest ruby in the country, weighing 2.160 gram, equivalent of 10,800 carats. Recently, the Luc Yen Gem Association has been established to protect the prestige of Luc Yen gems.

Luc Yen – The unique gem market in Vietnam