Hello everyone, I'm Ah Xing.
Ten years ago, I went to Mandalay with a few Myanmar friends to buy goods, and it was a coincidence that the people who made the goods during that time were in Naypyidaw, and they had to do business for a while before they could slowly return.
Time waited for no one to spend here, so I decided to try my luck at Jade Open myself.
As we all know Chinese going down to Myanmar jadeite exposure is a huge risk, if things are not thorough, you may be jailed, and you may not be able to return unharmed.
On the other end of the phone, my brother advised bitterly: "The gentleman does not stand under the wall!" "Since ancient times: the poor are rushing to the field! Our family is not yet able to open the pot, and we really can't make this trip to muddy waters.
However, I am confident that Chairman Mao said that people will prevail over heaven. It is now the end of the rainy season, plus the public market is being held. As far as I know, the exposure has been relaxed a lot. Coupled with the help of friends in Myanmar, this road must be without surprises.
As it turned out, I was overly optimistic!
In July 2014, I arrived in Mandalay by car.
After a day of playing, I fell asleep at night when I returned to the hotel, and I forgot to eat dinner.
At three o'clock in the morning, I suddenly heard a loud noise from downstairs of the hotel. I woke up from the haze and opened the window to see that the whole city seemed to have boiled. As far as the eye could see, the streets were filled with crowds, shouting, crying, fighting, and a man fell to the ground. Indians on the streets of Mandalay shouted slogans that I didn't understand.
In the early hours of the morning, a Burmese friend came to tell me that it was a conflict between Burmese and Indians, which had been caused by a case of Indian rape of a Burmese girl in Naypyidaw. The conflict between Indians and Burmese has a long history, and it boils down to the struggle for living space.
I took a picture of my phone at that time, but unfortunately it was too dark and the photo was blurry.
Over the next few days, Mandalay became a borderless city: Indians announced that they would retaliate, streets were filled with nervous-looking and heavily armed Burmese police, and the government warned the government not to go out after 9 p.m.
The photo below was taken near the Diamond Mall, Myanmar's busiest section, at 8 p.m., when it used to be the busiest, and now the birds are silent and creepy.
There are two roads to the mine, one is from Ruili and goes through Mandalay.
The other is to go through Myitkyina, this time we chose the Mandalay side, this route is very hard.
First of all, you need to take a 10-hour car from my sister to Mandalay, and then charter a car for 13-14 hours to go to M town closest to the mine (in case of bad weather, you need to ride a motorcycle for about 18 hours). Finally, take a motorcycle ride from M town for 3-5 hours to various mining areas. Calculated carefully, the time spent one way takes 26-29 hours, which shows how hard it is.
If you take the Myitkyina line, the time is shorter and easier, but there are more and stricter checkpoints on the road.
Although this road is mostly plain, the road conditions are very poor, most of them are simply paved with stones, or there are no stones at all, just dirt roads.
Because it was still the rainy season in Myanmar, many parts of the road were flooded, and it was often difficult for vehicles to accompany us, so we waited for a few days in Wacheng, just waiting for the water level to go down.
Eat at small restaurants along the way, the rice is still good, and the rest is not flattering.
After about a dozen hours of driving, we stopped by a bridge that was under repair.
The teacher told me that this is the bridge that his sister and brother-in-law are building, and after repairing, the government gives them the right to charge, a bit like the BT model in China.
The host entertained us with freshly squeezed mango juice, and in casual conversation we learned that the teacher's brother-in-law is a famous bridge design engineer, and after working on this bridge, they will go to Hpakant to build another bridge.
"There are a lot of good jadeite in the river over there in Hpakant, when the time comes to dig up the good ones, I will definitely contact you."
We laughed! The river on the Hpakant side is not allowed to be dug casually, but these bridges and roads always have the convenience of building near the water.
After a section of the worst mountain road, victory is in sight for the small town of M.
Overlooking the town from the rooftop, it's secluded and charming. After a while, the clouds covered and pulled down the thin rain line. The town was shrouded in smoke and rain.
When checking in to the hotel, the hostess repeatedly asked, where did it come from and where did it go? I replied with Chinese: "I came from the Eastern Tang Dynasty, and I want to go to the Western Heaven to learn the scriptures." "A friend helped me translate it into Burmese, "go relatives" Under the suspicious eyes of the hostess, we completed the check-in procedures.
The teacher instructed us to wander around the town casually, not to cause trouble, not to talk too much, and attract unnecessary attention.
The scenery of the town is charming and has a sense of paradise. Just when we don't know how to linger, there is actually an undercurrent, and danger is imminent.
After returning to the hotel, the teacher brought a friend over. Brother A, in his thirties, dark skin, introverted and simple, local Kachin, familiar with all the cargo owners here, is responsible for finding goods for us this time.
Most of the stones in this area come from the small field area Nanqi (correctly pronounced Nanmqi), Mohan, Moliu, Nansion, etc., and there are also some materials from the Dama Chop Field, Hpakant Field Area and Longken Field Area.
Nanqi opened a new hole dug out, black leather material, the skin is very thin, and it even looks a little like fake leather.
Nanqi's pigment, ice color, high price, can't negotiate and give up.
Many people think that it must be cheap to buy materials near the exposure.
There are two sides to this problem: on the one hand, the open looks ahead, and of course there is a chance to buy cheap. On the other hand, there are many big bosses gathered near the exposure, and they bid much higher than Ruili. Often we see 100,000 materials, they can go out to 200,000, we look at 1 million they can take two million, and they don't grind.
I walked around until five o'clock in the afternoon and collected two pieces of materials.
Brother A asked us to go around the market near the hotel, where there was a small wool market.
I went there with my Burmese friend HSJ and her husband, MMJ, to find goods.
At this point, there were not many people, so we found a place to sit and ordered milk tea from Myanmar. And then someone came to see the deliveries. After looking at several sets and not satisfied, a few Kachin people with waist knives came at this time. Ride a motorcycle with snow chains installed.
Obviously, this is just coming down from the mine, maybe there are good goods on it.
I greeted him cheerfully and asked in standard Mandarin, "Are there any good stones?" "Most of the Kachin speak Yunnan and of course they understand Mandarin.
They exchanged glances, and one of them took a palm-sized black stone from his arms and handed it to me. I hit it with a flashlight, the planting water is not bad, and there are some pine flowers on the skin shell, which should be the material for the flowers on the bottom of the block.
"How much?" I asked.
"50 million," the Kachin replied lightly.
Asking for prices is also a common thing, and I didn't take it seriously: "500,000 is the most." ”
After listening to my bid, the Kachin people took a few steps forward and surrounded me, and two of them pulled out their waist knives behind them and glared at me fiercely. The man who handed me the ingredients said coldly: "The boss will give it well!" ”
Faced with a foreign country, especially in Myanmar, where the rule of law is weak, I broke out in a cold sweat while figuring out how to respond to this crisis.
We can't beat it, the opponent is fully armed, and we are barehanded. Run and can't run, they have a few motorcycles, we have a few pairs of slippers. The only way is to talk.
While I was thinking about it, the local Kachin Brother A came and followed a man, wearing a white old T-shirt, a hole in the shoulder, and a Nepalese machete tied around his waist, his appearance was somewhat similar to Brother A, the difference was that he looked grim and had a murderous aura between his eyebrows. I've never seen a person with such a murderous aura.
Brother A and the man in white shouted at the Kachin people: "They are my friends, don't look for trouble." ”
That Kachin cargo owner did not adhere to it: "Which one are you?" Shut up your! ”
The man in white frowned, pulled out his waist knife, put it against the stomach of the Kachin cargo owner, and said fiercely: "I want to die, but!" ”
A man next to him whispered a few words in the ear of the Kachin cargo owner.
The cargo owner's face changed, and his face was full of smiles: "Brother B, I'm sorry!" After saying that, several people turned around and walked away.
A crisis was resolved, and this scene really happened in front of my eyes, which can be described as a peak turn.
Later, I learned from casual chat that B is A's eldest brother, who has joined the army, is a warrior who crawled out of the pile of dead people, is very famous, and belongs to the first-class master in the local area on fighting. Often the boss came to him to ask him to be a bodyguard on the exposure. Because of his stubborn temper, he is easy to offend people, and he has always mixed poorly.
After the incident, our group gathered at Brother B's house to discuss going to Mohan Town the next morning and then entering the mine.
Brother B is a man of temperament, and he is not familiar with me, and he looks unhappy: "Why bring Chinese exposure?" It not only takes risks, but also helps Chinese block the wealth of the locals. ”
The teacher said lightly: "You talk too much." Brother B muttered a few words and did not continue.
Early the next morning, it was raining lightly, and the teacher looked at the clouds in the sky and said that there was no big problem, and our group of six people and three motorcycles were ready to go.
Among the six people in the group were Chinese, Burman, Indian, and Kachin, which could be called an international column.
To find out what happened at the mouth of the mine, and listen to the next breakdown
This article is written in the form of a story, Myanmar is an unsafe area, please do not go easily, thank you.
Text|Zhongwei quality inspection
Reference l Protagonist A Xing (pseudonym)
Figure|Authorized, invaded and deleted