The price gap reflects lingering differences in hue and luster. It does not take a jeweler to discern those differences when Chinese pearls are placed next to saltwater pearls.

Joel Schechter, the chief executive of Honora, one of the biggest Manhattan-based importers of Chinese pearls, recently walked into the steel vault at his offices just off Madison Avenue and selected two costly strands of some of his best, blemish-free, half-inch pearls.

The strand from Tahiti, with a wholesale price of $14,000 without the clasp, gleamed silvery white in his hand. Next to it, a strand from China also glistened with perfectly round, blemish-free pearls, but they had a more chalky hue.

At $1,800 wholesale, the Chinese strand also had a much less lustrous price. China’s arrival in this segment of the market, Mr. Schechter said, “has made pearls affordable for the average working woman.”

Mr. Zhan, the man who has grown ever richer on cheaper pearls, is chief executive of Grace Pearl, one of the largest companies in Zhuji, a town in Zhejiang Province. Grace grows pearls in Zhejiang and, as real estate and labor costs have risen, also in inland Jiangxi, Hunan, Anhui and Hubei Provinces.

Mr. Zhan picked up a visitor to Zhuji in his chauffeured brown Maserati Quattroporte sedan.

“When I drive myself, I prefer the Ferrari 360, it’s more fun,” he explained on the way to dinner. The meal included a soup made from wild lake turtle, a delicacy that has become increasingly rare. More people in this part of China can now afford the delicacy, and that has led to overfishing.