Diamonds not always a girl's best friend in China

By Lucy Hornby

BEIJING (Reuters) - Well-heeled Chinese women are questioning the old maxim that diamonds are a girl's best friend as their jewelry collections expand along with their bank balances.

While diamonds are definitely still a must-have in the jewelry boxes of wealthy women in China; rubies, sapphires and other colored gems are becoming popular too.

"Diamonds are still sought after for weddings or a traditional event. But Chinese really want to show their individuality, that's the trend for everyone now," said Yao Yuan, a director at the International Gemological Institute.

Take 20-something events manager Zhu Xiaomei.

Like many upwardly mobile Chinese women -- she's not shy about buying her own jewelry -- and the piece that caught her eye during a shopping trip in Beijing was an ornate gold ring with colored gem chips.

"I like to buy a lot of pieces and change them to go with various outfits, so I look first at the stones and the appearance," said Zhu, rejecting a dramatic silver collar in a nearby case as "too plain".

China is one of the few countries in the world where jewelry demand has held relatively steady this year, even with gold prices at 28-year highs and platinum at record prices.

That's due to China's booming economy, the fourth largest in the world, which is growing by 11 percent per year.

Almost three decades of economic reform and rapid growth has created a wealthy elite and affluent middle class, eager to spend their way up the social ladder.

China's richest 800 people are worth an average $562 million each, according to the yearly Hurun Report, while 21 million of the absolute poorest citizens live on less than $88 a year.

SAPPHIRES, RUBIES AND EMERALDS

Wealthy Chinese women have moved from a traditional preference for gold that could be quickly melted down for cash to a willingness to pay for jewels based on fashion and design.

Many women of means in China, like Zhu, are not shy about buying their own jewels. Their fiances might buy a solitaire diamond ring but anything else is fair game for these newly affluent professionals.

In contrast, in the United States, about 80 percent of diamond jewelry purchases are gifts for someone else.

Like many Chinese women keen to expand their jewelry collections, Zhu said she is willing to buy several pieces each year at a few thousand yuan a piece, and occasionally splurges for something over 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) -- the equivalent of a month's salary for a white collar manager in Beijing.