|
 Discovery
In 1932, a Japanese man by the name of Nakashima found white fibered asbestos. From that discovery a mine was set up in Lao Nao Mountain, in the Fong Tian area. Because asbestos was good for heat insulation and could be used as non-conductive industrial insulation, it was an important Japanese resource during World War II. A large quantity of this asbestos was excavated and exported to Japan. Because this was the paramount task, "trash rocks" that had green stone mixed with asbestos were thrown into the stream valley below the mine.
Later, asbestos was found to harm people's breathing system. The mine was closed. Then, shortly after Taiwan was freed from Japan, another mining company was born. This Da He company was set up in 1947, but was not well managed, so mining rights were then shifted to the China Mining Company. Under this now-stable company, the mining focus was on asbestos and talcum. Fong Tian jade was being handled constantly, but was still considered useless rock, and was thrown away. Then in 1961 a group of geologists including Lio Xui Cheng and Professor Tan Li Ping came to Fong Tian to investigate and conduct their general research.
It was then that the useless green rock dumped into the river and piled up at the entrance of the asbestos mine, was found to be valuable nephrite. This is when Fong Tian jade was discovered.
This exciting discovery was broadcast by the Central Daily News in 1965. Soon people who dreamed of becoming rich flooded into Fong Tian like a surging tide. Mining companies, jade processing factories and craft workshops sprung up here and turned Fong Tian into a wealthy village. During 1960's and 1970's, the taxi shuttle service thrived.
Fong Tian was full of taxis. There were 30~40 taxis running regularly by the time that movie theaters, shops, tea stores and restaurants had been established. Almost everyone in the village was doing something related to jade. There were around 50 jade processing companies of different scale and size, making a large quantity of money from the export business. During 1962~1986, the amount of nephrites from Taiwan accounted for 60% in world's total jade production. This transformed Fong Tian, previously a simple and unsophisticated village, into the most prosperous villiage in in east Taiwan. It made a beautiful name for Fong Tian as "eastern Taiwan's little Jiu Fen" (a goldmining hillside village in northeastern Taiwan).
|
|
|
Where's jade today?