[Fedora]

Interesting article. This part would also seem relevant to the issue of possible connections with the Olmecs:

The relic site is the earliest and most well-preserved of primitive villages in China and pushed estimates of the country's jade production history back to some 8,000 years ago.

[blam]

Yup. Lots of jade in the Tarim Basin region. In-fact, The Jade Gate, in the Great Wall (of China), is there at Dunhuang, just a short distance from Urumchi...where all the 4,000 year old (Celt like) Caucasian mummies were found.

"Jade rings used for ear decoration and bar-shaped jade used for neck decoration were usually found "together" in the northeast China approximately 8,000 years ago, but showed up together in 7,000-plus-year-old Japanese sites, said Wang. "