A livestreamer displays crystal products online to foreign customers at the Donghai Crystal City. Photo: Courtesy of Donghai Crystal City

In a live broadcast room in East China's Donghai Crystal City, the 29-year-old Fan Fan is doing her best to present a set of glittering crystals to her customers in the UK in front of a bright screen in chirpy English.

In 2021, an overseas e-commerce team of the Crystal City opened a small shop on the TikTok platform in the UK, where Fan first got in touch with British customers and found crystals - which are endowed with meanings such as good luck, healing, and energy in the West - may be more popular than she thought in some foreign countries. 

"Running our store on the platform for a while, we found that sales of crystal products were quite good in the UK, and it is also easier for foreign merchants to learn about our crystal products directly through live broadcasting," Fan told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Up to now, Donghai Crystal City has nearly 1,000 online shops overseas, with a particularly high penetration in nations like Indonesia, Southeast Asia and some regions in the US. 

Among them, sales in the UK have been "particularly stable," according to Fan.

Fan is just one of the increasing players who are engaging in the cross-border e-commerce industry in Donghai county.

From January to September of 2022, there were more than 5,100 cross-border e-commerce operators in the county, with a transaction volume of over 2.4 billion yuan ($350.53 million), who created more than 30,000 jobs, according to data from the local government.

Glittering history 

Donghai county, located in East China's Jiangsu Province, is well-known for its rich silicon mineral resources, with crystal reserves of 300,000 tons and quartz reserves of 300 million tons, accounting for more than half of the country's total.

On October 1, 1991, Donghai county held its first Crystal Festival and paved the way for its nationwide fame as China's "Crystal County". At that time, the county with a permanent population of only 40,000 people attracted nearly 200,000 people to the scene, setting a record in 30 years.

"Not only do we have the largest quantity of crystal but also the best quality," said Chen Lin, president of the Donghai Crystal Research Association. 

The crystal in Donghai has the highest purity. More than 99.99 percent of its content is silicon, according to Chen.

In 1992, Donghai Crystal City was established to standardize trade and industrial chains as businesses are rising. With a construction area of about 450,000 square meters and facilities such as restaurants, hotels, a cinema, banks, logistics, insurance, exhibitions and auctions, Crystal City became a national center for crystal trade to the domestic and outbound markets. 

It also has the largest collection of crystal displays and provides sales channels for the interaction of online and on-site merchants.

Empowered by the booming crystal industry, the county is currently one of the top 100 counties of China.

A view of the Donghai Crystal City in Donghai county, East China's Jiangsu Province Photo: Courtesy of Donghai Crystal City

Silver lining

However, as COVID-19 disrupted traditional sales channels, the crystal industry in Donghai explored more ways to reach more buyers online, and livestreaming and cross-border e-commerce platforms were found to be the most cost-efficient ways, becoming a silver-lining for local traders.

Unlike photos, which may show a distorted image, the crystal's gloss, fullness and its three-dimensional craftsmanship can be seen very clearly in a video, Zhang Hong, a local crystal trader, told the Global Times.

With the use of just one mobile phone and access to the internet, many traders who once relied on on-site sales channels have turned their attention to cross-border platforms with lower promotion costs and the stronger consumption power of foreign buyers, Zhang said.

This "easy" method also encouraged more villagers to join the "nugget boom".

Domestic platforms such as Taobao, Douyin and Kuaishou have opened livestreaming bases in the county. Global e-commerce platforms such as Amazon also have a presence in Donghai.

In 2021, e-commerce transactions for Donghai's crystals reached nearly 16.8 billion yuan, ranking seventh among the top 100 live broadcast counties in China, according to a report by the People's Daily.

"We will further promote the creation of local e-commerce brands, through various methods such as government promotion and platform incubation," Crystal City said in a statement it sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

It is also striving to build up the intellectual property of the Donghai Crystal brand, deepen the regionalization and brand image of local crystal products, and encourage and guide e-commerce companies to promote and sell crystal products through professional packaging and standard building.