There Are Rocks,

and then there are rocks,

and no not pet rocks, these rocks are not to pet, but are collected for their sheer beauty, photographs and story Absolute General News, 

Hejiaba village on the banks of the Yangtze River, in Sichuan Province gets a decent number of tourists every year, but tourism isn’t the most profitable local business,

that title goes to the collection and sale of ornamental river stones,

every year from February to April, when the Yangtze River enters the dry season, hundreds of villagers can be seen combing the banks of the river in search of beautiful, smooth boulders,

there are more than 3,000 acres of pebbled river stone beach that stretches for nearly 10 kilometres along the banks, so there’s plenty of stone to go around, the business of collecting the stones and selling them for profit didn’t develop until 2003, when a couple in Niutan Town allegedly saw some of these beautiful stones, took a few back home with them and sold them in the market at a nice profit, how nice?

well some of the most valuable Hejiaba river stones can sell for thousands, even tens of thousands of yuan. One stone, which the owner actually named “Difficult Shu Road” after the pattern displayed on it, reportedly sold for an amazing100,000 yuan, at today's rate £11,048.00 or US$15,391.00, Chinese media recently covered the unusual business, saying that many of the locals live off the trade, and some have become very affluent thanks to it, and now the even better news for the villagers of Hejiaba, it is far from the only village on the banks of the Yangtze, but while it does see more stones wash up on its banks than most others, that’s not what makes it special, this place has already built a reputation, with Hejiaba stones fetching a premium price compared to other ornamental river stones, for the full story have a look here.