China’s wealthy turn attention to the universe
Print Edition
AFTER journeys of millions of kilometers, rocks formed from the primordial soup of the solar system have landed on the walls of a Chinese showroom.
For some of China’s wealthy, the terrestrial trappings of fast cars, designer bags and deluxe apartments are worthless compared to bounty from outer space.
Tong Xianping is among the Chinese entrepreneurs paying astronomic prices and making an impact in one of the world’s more arcane markets.
He spent a million yuan (US$163,000) on a chunk of the iron-packed Seymchan, pieces of which were first found in a Russian riverbed in 1967, and believed to be billions of years old.
“It was worth it,” said Tong, 50, admiring the 176 kilogram mass, which calls to mind an inflated lump of coal. “They are news from space.”
Tong keeps dozens of specimens under spotlights at his exhibition space in Urumqi, capital of China’s far-western Xinjiang region.
They include a knobbly brown rock that was part of Gibeon, a meteorite which crashed in prehistoric southern Africa. It also cost around a million yuan, Tong said.
In a safe, he has carbonaceous chondrites he scooped from the sands himself — ancient chunks resembling the nebula which produced the planets of the solar system.
“These are very complete fragments, and hard to find,” he said.
Flashy purchases have made China’s newly wealthy a subject of envy and ridicule.
Tong is happy to be called nouveau riche, he says, although he dismissed earthly possessions. “Cars are manufactured, but there can only be one of each meteorite.”
Scholars study the rocks for clues to the origins of the solar system, and some believe they seeded Earth with organic molecules that enabled life to form.
Tong frequently ventures into China’s vast Taklamakan desert in search of manna from heaven.
The world’s second-largest expanse of shifting sands, the Taklamakan is known for the 1,000 kilogram Fukang meteorite discovered in 2000, which resembles a honeycomb in gold and silver when cut open — and is valued at millions of dollars. Tong owns a slice.
Aside from a brutal climate, Tong also has to contend with packs of wolves and hordes of aggressive insects.
“I often come across snakes and poisonous spiders, but I love it.
“It’s about doing what you want, and being far away from the world,” he added. “The mysteries of the universe are endless, that’s why we’re interested in meteorites.”
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