Gems on display in Chantaburi December 9-13. Home of the country’s gem mining, Chantaburi provinces highlights its gems and jewelery industry in a World Gem Show,  Gem lovers recognise Chantaburi province as a key source of quality stones and also a province rich in the skills required to craft customised jewelery.

Photo: mthai.com

The 6th Chantaburi World Gem Show 2009 will take place in the province from 9 to 13 December at a site right next to the provincial town’s KP Grand Hotel. Backers are: Chantaburi province; Chantaburi Provincial Administrative Organisation; Chantaburi Gem and Jewelery Trader; the Office of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Promotion and Chantaburi Tourism Association.

The objective is to promote tourism, improve knowledge of the province’s lucrative gems and jewellery business and help financial recovery in a business sector that relies heavily on tourists visiting the province. Well over 50 local gems and jewellery wholesalers and factories will join the World Gem Show. It will be held at Chantaburi Gem and Jewellery Traders Association, next to KP Grand Hotel.

Visitors can shop for handicrafts at the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) pavilion, taste Chantaburi’s “Clean Food Good Taste” dishes, enjoy a mini concert, and join sightseeing tours to an old style community that occupies the town’s river banks. There is also a gemstone walking street and a free gem tour available at 0930 and 1300.

The province is one of the country’s main centres of gemstone mining especially for rubies and sapphires. Most of the mines are open cast where high powered water jets are used to expose and separate the precious stones from rock and clay.

Chantaburi located about 245 km from Bangkok, the southern part of the province touches the Gulf of Thailand’s with its attractive beaches and a variety of dive spots near off-shore islands. But it is also a province of natural beauty with heavily forested mountain ranges rising to almost 1,600 at the highest peak of Soi Dao Nua further inland from the coastal towns.