This Tongbei specimen is truly a cut above...as with some other specimens from here, there are quartz crystals with spessartines growing on the sides. But where some smokies from Tongbei can be almost opaque, these have a rare, almost SWISS gemminess to them - making the specimen really stand out from what you normally see. The most common thing you see from here is the plates of massed spessartines with small smokies poking up here and there. This is certainly an exception in many ways!