Beijing and Guangzhou are China’s two cities famous for ivory carving. Beijing is mainly known for ivory carvings of figures of ladies, as well as flowers and birds. Guangzhou is well known for its exquisitely carved ivory balls.

Beijing ivory carving can be traced back more than 2,000 years. It matured as early as the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Owing to the rarity of elephant tusks, most ivory carvings belonged to imperial nobilities, forming the graceful royal art form.

Unlike emeralds and other gemstones, ivory has no cleavage. When carved, sanded and polished, it is smooth to the touch. Ivory carving has two main carving techniques: round carving and openwork carving. Round carving is adopted to make characters, animals and mountains. Openwork carving is adopted to make boats, vases, towers and ivory balls. Other techniques include plane carving, three dimensional engraving and shallow or deep relief carving.

It is illegal in most countries where elephants live to kill them for their tusks. Thus, jewelry, figurines, and other products that are made from carved ivory have become hard to find and are now hot collector's items.

Even though international authoritative institutions lifted the overall ban on the ivory trade in the 1980s, the ivory carving techniques in Beijing are still on the decline due to a lack of materials, the draining of skilled artisans, and the lack of interest in ivory carving among the younger generation.