Adapting to new ways

The city now consumes more than 4,600 tons of zirconia a year. The price of the raw material has risen from 80 yuan per kilogram in 2008 to more than 200 yuan per kg.

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All waste powder is recycled into new zirconia bars. Some area farmers even get rich by selling the powder they dig up from the waste yard, which has been buried for the past 30 years.

Fierce price competition in raw materials and finished products, already "a zero-sum game", as some call it, in Wuzhou has forced business owners to move up the industrial chain to jewelry making and design.

But Wuzhou's gemstone industry's strength is its adaptability. Many people, including bosses like Meng and Liang, tried to make up for their missed lessons in jewelry design in 2008, when the industry was hit by slumping demand.

The people learned by copying, just as they did when they copied the Taiwanese polishing machines in the 1980s.

"If we do not copy designs from Italy, France, Austria, Hong Kong and Belgium, we have no chance of elbowing into the market," Liang said.

Wuzhou College, the only higher educational facility in the city, established its jewelry design department in 2005, and it has become the cradle for the Wuzhou design industry.

"I have designed jewelry for five years. I majored in advertisement in college and learned jewelry designing myself," said Pu Yanli, who works for Meng.

"The most difficult part is learning to use the designing software and getting familiar with all the designing elements popular among the famous brands. Then you just mix different elements together in your works."

But Liang believes the artificial gem-processing industry has reached the end of the road in Wuzhou and that turning to jewelry design will not revive it.

"The gem industry will move to the Southeast Asia because of cheaper labor costs," Liang said. "Without the raw material advantage, Wuzhou's weak designing ability will wither."

Huo Yan contributed to this story.

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