China, A Rockhound's Delight

China is a cornucopia of natural minerals and fossils for the collector. Anyone visiting international gem and mineral shows will attest to the exponential growth in the numbers of participating dealers from China and their increasing savvy in the world market. Enterprising websites advertising both sales and mineral “tours” in China such as those offered by both AAA Minerals (www.aaaminerals.com) and by Mr. Chen Xiaojun (www.chinaruff.com) are also becoming more common.

I am an amateur collector, a true rock hound. Put me on the Hetian River bed in Xinjiang and I’ll spend pleasurable hours searching for the elusive white jade (明玉）which for centuries was carved and given as tribute to Chinese emperors. I’m not picky; in fact, those of you who truly collect will laugh at me; what is meaningful for me is a piece which captures a place’s memory. I’ve haggled over a manticoceras (or something similar) on the Tibetan plateau, crossing into the Everest National Parkland. I’ve bought roadside some interesting black crystals on feldspar while travelling on the Karakorum Highway leading from NW China to Pakistan. I’ve rummaged through dusty store shelves in Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia, for petrified wood gathered from the Gobi Desert. My favorite piece is not quite amber, but still a type of resin, found by an old couple in Hebei Province high in the mountains which ring Beijing. (They literally used it for fuel!) (see photo at right)

Two weeks ago I had the incredible pleasure and privilege to visit the private mineral and fossil museum of Dr. George Liu of AAA Minerals—Geopal Institute. Dr. Liu is a respected mineralogist who has published articles in the Mineralogical Record (Minerals of China), Extralapis (Fluorite, Beryl, Tourmaline), and Rocks and Minerals China. He has also published “Mineral Dealing in China” in the Mineral Record Carrier (5/1/09) and divides his time between Beijing and Tubingen, Germany. In fact, my interest in AAA Minerals’ mine tours and correspondence with them in English and Chinese had earned my invitation, and I fortuitously stumbled upon a gathering of Chinese from all over the country united by their enthusiasm for minerals and fossils. After the private viewing of specimens from all over the world (as well as from each Chinese province), they gathered to discuss how to launch the first mineral & fossil society of China. Geologists and mining experts and university professors and the director of the Beijing Geological Museum, amateurs and dealers all came to share ideas and information.

While the majority of these people had interest in minerals, fossil interests were also exhibited, and again, word from the Tucson show was that “Chinese dealers offered plants, insects, fish and occasionally amphibians and reptiles primarily from the from Liaoning Province deposits. This year there were literally thousands of Sinohydrosaurus, the reptilian otter of the cretaceous, along with a few of their larger kin from China. Chinese dinosaur eggs are much less commonly offered for sale than they were a few years ago but can still be found.” Last month I heard a lecture by Dr. Damien Leloup, the French-born director of the Yizhou Geological Park and Dinosaur Museum of Liaoning give a talk. He explained why Liaoning was so rich in fossil deposits and how the farmers in the area often know more than the visiting “experts” in where and how to find the fossil remains. Yizhou is not too far away from Beijing and certainly worth a train ride visit. (*See www.liaoningdinosaurpark.com for more information.)