Hundreds of millions of years ago, large swathes of pine forests in an area that is today around the Baltic Sea were engulfed by massive tectonic events. Thousands of tons of forest ended up under the ground. 

In the following millennia - sometimes under high temperatures, sometimes under huge pressure - the resin from those trees was petrified. Today, that millions-of-years-old petrified resin is what we call amber.

Although amber can be found around the globe, it is the Baltic Sea area that contains over 90 percent of the world's reserves. The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad holds the biggest chunk of these reserves; Poland is a close second. 

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While Russia mostly exports raw amber, Poland has specialized in turning it into magnificent jewelry. Its yearly exports are estimated to be worth more than $300 million. According to Polish exporters, buyers in China and south-east Asia purchase almost 40 percent of the entire production.

On a cold October Saturday morning, we embarked on a two-hour-long drive from the Polish port of Gdansk to the town of Ustka. The seaside resort is situated on the Baltic Sea and tourists come here to enjoy the local beaches, even on crisp autumn days. 

But for some beach goers, it isn't a matter of relaxation but of serious business. Andrzej Zakrzewski has been engaged in amber prospecting along the Ustka shallow shoreline for ten years. 

Wearing a divers dry suit, Zakrzewski pushes a specially designed net through the water, some 100 meters from the beach. It is a heavy contraption for finding amber on the seabed.

"You have to work a lot for it," Andrzej tells CGTN Europe. "It's a lot of sleepless nights. We go out to meet with friends and divide into groups. We also walk around the beach with flashlights at night, looking for various waste and we're looking for amber. So it is incalculable kilometers of walking."

This time, only a jellyfish ended up in his net, but he showed us some of his recent finds worth a few thousand U.S. dollars. 

Zakrzewski and his fellow prospectors sell amber mostly to craftsmen from the area, who then make it into exquisite jewelry. Local jewelers turn thousands of dollars worth of amber into tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.

Dawid Maniszewski, from the local amber museum said many of the pieces are actually especially designed for the Asian market.

"Many jewelry pieces are produced for the Chinese market due to the fact that it is a very specific customer," he says. 

"In Poland, this jewelry can be too big in size for Polish clients, whereas Chinese women adore big and shiny jewelry. But above all, the crafts of our Polish artisans are highly valued abroad."

Although Poland lags far behind Russia in amber deposits and extraction, it accounts for nearly 70 percent of the world's amber jewelry market. And most of it is produced right here, in the Gdansk region, where more than 100 tons of amber is processed annually.