Tengchong Country Town is only 80 km away from the only global production site of raw jadeite at the Myanmar border. [1]
In the 1970s, the country developed their foreign trade policy. The Tengchong raw jadeite business flourished. Ten years later, Tengchong became the global raw jadeite distribution center. That was the Tengchong jade industry's most prosperous period. In 1996, the Myanmar government announced the ban of the private trading of raw jade and stopped the Myanmar traders from smuggling it across the border. Hence, the rough jadeite trade returned to Myanmar. This was the start of the downfall of Tengchong's raw jadeite trade.