Pomelo
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2015
- Messages
- 543
After lurking in this Pearls subforum for a few years, I’ve finally gotten round to buying my first “real” pearls!
I went to the Hongqiao Pearl Market in Beijing, fully expecting to pick up a strand of chunky white Edisons, but walked out with baroque peacock Tahitians.
Needless to say, I didn’t really *get* pearls until I saw the good stuff in person, especially Tahitians.
First though, I wanted to provide a short review of Hongqiao Pearl Market in Beijing - and sorry, even though I was there for a five hour Pearl extravaganza, I didn’t take any photos of the market itself!
I found out about Hongqiao from the other pearl forum. It’s across two floors of the large Hongqiao shopping centre - the lower floor has smaller stalls in the centre with larger stalls on the edges (a bit like the fine jewellery floor at Harrods, Selfridges, Bergdorfs etc), and the upper floor has more “established” shops with higher pricing.
To be honest, I hadn’t done much price comparison except using Pearl Paradise as a benchmark so can’t speak to the price at the market (except that they’re cheaper, but I don’t know how to compare PP quality grading vs what I saw in person!).
However, a couple of the vendors did mention that the pearl market in China is quite soft at the moment - prices of Tahitians have fallen, akoyas and WSS have stabilised and GSS is the only one where prices are edging up. Saying that, it could be a sales tactic as I ended up focussing on Tahitians
I don’t know the exact number, but there are definitely over 50 pearl vendors (and a few others doing mostly semi-precious gems with a small selection of small precious gems), and it’s so fun to see their wares. All of them carry white freshwaters and lower quality akoyas and WSS, but each stall differs by the finer pearls.
It definitely pays to shop around for two reasons. First, each stall carries only a few strands of fine pearls so seeing more stalls gives better comparison. Second, bargaining is expected in China - whilst I definitely didn’t pay the “lowest” price for my Tahitians, they represent good value to me and I love them!
Ok, onto the pearls - and apologies for the rushed photos - I only have photos of me wearing them whilst trying them on in the market, and at the airport (as we’re catching a flight soon after).
I saw this strand fairly early on in the five hour pearl romp, and couldn’t get it out of my head. It’s the first time I’d seen good quality Tahitians and once I put them on - BAM! The high contrast between the dark toned body and bright, sharp reflection was glorious!
I must’ve tried on 15-20 more strands of Tahitians ranging in price (from 400-6000 USD) but kept coming back to this one as the benchmark. The vendor said these are a “classic” peacock but I’d love to have your thoughts on what vocab I should use to describe these?
Here are the photos in store. Bear in mind that the market is indoors with no natural lighting:
And on a murky day at the airport (with airport carpet haha!):
And the shot that sealed the deal for me: I think Tahitians look so good on the neck, and I love it with black (which makes up most of my wardrobe):
And video:
For me, the baroque shape is fun and modern, and I am already planning on my next strand of baroques in a lighter tone
I went to the Hongqiao Pearl Market in Beijing, fully expecting to pick up a strand of chunky white Edisons, but walked out with baroque peacock Tahitians.
Needless to say, I didn’t really *get* pearls until I saw the good stuff in person, especially Tahitians.
First though, I wanted to provide a short review of Hongqiao Pearl Market in Beijing - and sorry, even though I was there for a five hour Pearl extravaganza, I didn’t take any photos of the market itself!
I found out about Hongqiao from the other pearl forum. It’s across two floors of the large Hongqiao shopping centre - the lower floor has smaller stalls in the centre with larger stalls on the edges (a bit like the fine jewellery floor at Harrods, Selfridges, Bergdorfs etc), and the upper floor has more “established” shops with higher pricing.
To be honest, I hadn’t done much price comparison except using Pearl Paradise as a benchmark so can’t speak to the price at the market (except that they’re cheaper, but I don’t know how to compare PP quality grading vs what I saw in person!).
However, a couple of the vendors did mention that the pearl market in China is quite soft at the moment - prices of Tahitians have fallen, akoyas and WSS have stabilised and GSS is the only one where prices are edging up. Saying that, it could be a sales tactic as I ended up focussing on Tahitians
I don’t know the exact number, but there are definitely over 50 pearl vendors (and a few others doing mostly semi-precious gems with a small selection of small precious gems), and it’s so fun to see their wares. All of them carry white freshwaters and lower quality akoyas and WSS, but each stall differs by the finer pearls.
It definitely pays to shop around for two reasons. First, each stall carries only a few strands of fine pearls so seeing more stalls gives better comparison. Second, bargaining is expected in China - whilst I definitely didn’t pay the “lowest” price for my Tahitians, they represent good value to me and I love them!
Ok, onto the pearls - and apologies for the rushed photos - I only have photos of me wearing them whilst trying them on in the market, and at the airport (as we’re catching a flight soon after).
I saw this strand fairly early on in the five hour pearl romp, and couldn’t get it out of my head. It’s the first time I’d seen good quality Tahitians and once I put them on - BAM! The high contrast between the dark toned body and bright, sharp reflection was glorious!
I must’ve tried on 15-20 more strands of Tahitians ranging in price (from 400-6000 USD) but kept coming back to this one as the benchmark. The vendor said these are a “classic” peacock but I’d love to have your thoughts on what vocab I should use to describe these?
Here are the photos in store. Bear in mind that the market is indoors with no natural lighting:
And on a murky day at the airport (with airport carpet haha!):
And the shot that sealed the deal for me: I think Tahitians look so good on the neck, and I love it with black (which makes up most of my wardrobe):
And video:
For me, the baroque shape is fun and modern, and I am already planning on my next strand of baroques in a lighter tone
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