Qingtian, one hometown to emigrants scattered over 100 countries

Qingtian county is located in southeastern Zhejiang province. There is now a population of half a million while it’s calculated that more than 250,000 people originally from Qingtian now live all over the world. First-generation emigrants to Europe mainly earned their living in businesses dealing with stone carvings from home.

Map shows the routes Qingtian people traveled around the world in 17th and 18th centuries. [zj.qq.com]

Arts of stone sculpturing

Stone sculptures are on display in Qingtian museum. Such products were taken overseas to be sold.

Stonework skills have been passed down over hundreds of years and many top-class sculptors originate from Qingtian.

A piece of traditional sculpture is seen in the local museum.

A modern work called “Red Detachment of Women” is also on display in the museum.

Three pieces of work is displayed in the museum.

A dragon egg stone exhibited in the museum. It is named for its shape and is rarely found any more in local mines.

A dragon egg stone “hatches” in the local museum.

Qingtian stone was popular for making name seals among Chinese intellectuals during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and beyond. Seals, made of Qingtian stone, now cost more than gold by weight in auction markets. Each of the four above may be worth more than two million yuan ($320,000) according to the museum.

Charts illustrate the processes involved in stone sculpting.

Scenic spots in Qingtian:

The ferry to the Shimen Cave scenic spot.

Shimen Falls is made of five tiers with the last one a 112-meter drop into a pool as deep as 10 meters. Qingtian is working hard to attract tourists to visit its natural scenery.

An old local ancestral temple is seen in this photo.

Local specialty:

A high-quality waxberry or Yangmei is a local specialty famous for its size, like a ping pong ball. It can be tasted between mid-June to early July.

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