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At the Davdar mine in Xinjiang, north-western China, emeralds are hosted mainly by carbonate, quartz-carbonate and quartz veins cutting metasedimentary rocks, and are associated with minerals such as hematite, dolomite, quartz, orthoclase and albite. Sixteen rough emeralds obtained during the authors’ visit to the mining area in 2019 were studied by standard gemmological techniques and various spectroscopic methods (FTIR, Raman, UV-Vis-NIR and EPR), as well as LA-ICP-MS chemical analysis. The analysed samples were mostly coloured by Cr, and showed a wide range of Fe, V, Mg and alkali contents, along with relatively low Cs, Rb and Sc. UV-Vis-NIR spectra showed features at 370 nm (Fe3+), 430 nm (Cr3+ with contributions from V3+ and possibly Fe3+), 580–630 nm (Cr3+ and V3+), 638 and 683 nm (Cr3+), and 850 nm (Fe2+ and possibly Fe2+–Fe3+ interactions). In addition, the more V-rich emeralds displayed a distinct V3+ absorption band at about 385–395 nm. Notably, the chemical composition of Davdar emeralds shows significant overlap with those from Panjshir, Afghanistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]