National Stone Museum, Wuhan opened to public in 1993 is a new tourist attraction, and it has been receiving a large number of visitors both domestic and foreign. National Stone Museum, Wuhan will let you know how enchanting unique stones would be.
So far the National Stone museum has stored more than 1300 pieces of stones, which were all discovered in China, except one, which came from Malaysia. Those stones were collected from different regions of China; some were original in Inner Mongolia in the north, some were discovered in Hainan Province in the south end of China, some were collected from Suzhou Province in the east and some from Gansu Province in the west.
Needless to say, the complete collection is too large to display. Visitors have an opportunity to see the most famous four kinds of stones: Taihu, Lingbi, Yuha, and Yingde and those amazing stones of Shoushan, Qingtian, Chanhai, Guanglu, and Balin. The most valuable stone in the museum is a piece of crystal, the third largest in China. Stones here are divided into different groups by figure, vein, mineral component, and ancient animal fossil. Some of the stones placed there named Ji Nian Shi (Commemorative Stone), which have a close relation with some important historical event.
All the unique stones in this museum are intact and crude with naturally pleasing shapes or designs. However, we are concerned how to estimate a piece of stone? Generally speaking, a piece of stone should have at least one of the peculiarities listed below: slender, large, elegant, odd, ugly, rugged, or clear enough that light can go through.
In China, the appreciation of stones dates back to the Jin Dynasty (265-420) and was popular all over the country until the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) Dynasties. With a thousand-year history, Chinese have developed their particular interest in searching, collecting, and appreciating stones. This tendency gradually spread into Southeast Asia and Europe and has developed to one of international fashion. Statistics shows that there are at least 2000 stones aficionados all over the world.