[meteorite-list] China Now Hosts The World's Largest Gem and Mineral Show

From: Peter Davidson <P.Davidson_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 09:19:35 +0000
Message-ID: <576F2B74A34E584AA173B40D1A8914C336D1448B_at_NMSMAIL01.nms2k.int>

Dear List members

I would be very wary of the figures quoted here. As someone on the list has already mentioned, the shows at Changsha (now gone forever), Chenzhou and elsewhere are largely attended by locals and students bussed in by the Chinese government to artificially boost numbers. A number of prominent mineral dealers that I know, who have the knowledge and experience of mineral shows World-wide, are all very scathing about the Chinese shows. It may well be that once these shows have been running for a number of years (like Tucson and Munich) then thinks will settle down and trust between seller and buyer may eventually be built up.

My recent experiences of trying to get the Chinese to organise an international mineralogy conference have proved to be one of the most frustrating periods of my professional life. China may have made many great strides in some fields, but are hide-bound by politics. The result of all this is that the conference will probably not go ahead. Poor organisation and political interference/favouritism are among the main culprits.

I am a relative Tucson newbie (this will be my fifth visit), and the city can be a difficult place to reach from Scotland, but it is still (along with Munich) the place to go to catch up with old friends, meet new ones and most importantly see some great specimens! I would not be too worried about attendance figures. The main show, where I have my small display, is still pretty busy on all the days that it is open and the hotels and smaller shows around the city still seem to attract a lot of people. Long may it continue.

Hope to see a few of you there.

Peter Davidson
Senior Curator of Mineralogy

Natural Sciences Department
National Museums Collection Centre
242 West Granton Road
Edinburgh
EH5 1JA
TEL: 0131 247 4283
E-mail: p.davidson at nms.ac.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: Meteorite-list [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Raremeteorites via Meteorite-list
Sent: 23 January 2016 18:07
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: [meteorite-list] China Now Hosts The World's Largest Gem and Mineral Show

Dear List Members,

I was shocked to hear that the Tucson Gem and Mineral show is no longer the world's largest. It looks like China is in first place with attendance figures of over 380,000 for a four day event in 2015 compared to less than
40,000 for Tucson.

http://www.friendsofmineralogy.org/newsletters/2015_Jul.pdf

Maybe I should attend this year to add support for this American show that has been running since 1955 while the Chinese show has only existed for a mere 3 years.

Adam




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Received on Mon 25 Jan 2016 04:19:35 AM PST