Wu Chunlei, a collector from Kazuo County (Harqin Left Wing Mongolian Autonomous County), embarked on his journey of collecting stones 23 years ago in 2000. In other words, it has taken him at least 20 years to prepare and present this “feast of peculiar stones”. The enormous amount of time, energy, and money he has invested in the process is beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

In 2000, Wu Chunlei started collecting stones. In order to collect peculiar stones, he travelled all over places such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet. Stones have become his companions ever since and he has also made friends with many like-minded collectors of peculiar stones. As his collection of peculiar stones grows larger and richer, his “treasures” spread from his home to his office and the factory yard. In order to accommodate his growing collection, he has especially set up an exhibition hall of peculiar stones at his own Kazuo Dongmeng Museum. The exhibition hall is titled “Buyan Peculiar Stone Appreciation Gallery”and used to display the peculiar stones he has collected over the years.

The stories about Wu Chunlei’s stone collecting are numerous and the plots are vivid and breathtaking enough to be written in a book. Once he was having a fever when he heard the news about an exhibition of peculiar stones in Shijiazhuang City. He immediately packed up and left for Hebei Province with a thermometer and some medicine. His wife was so worried about his health that she accompanied him on the trip. In order to learn about the culture of peculiar stones, he especially attended training courses on peculiar stone appreciation in Luoyang City and joined the View Stone Association of China. He has also made friends with many fans of peculiar stones and learnt from them with a modest and open mind. He and a fellow fan of peculiar stones from Inner Mongolia have forged a very close friendship. They mainly communicate and appreciate peculiar stones through online platforms. Once, this fellow friend encountered difficulties in life. To help him out, Wu Chunlei purchased peculiar stones worth tens of thousands of yuan from him in one go. From then on, this fellow friend will share with Wu Chunlei whatever high-quality peculiar stones he comes across. One of them is a bird- shaped stone that Wu Chunlei admired greatly. This fellow friend generously and gratefully made a present of it to Wu Chunlei despite his own love for the stone.

According to Wu Chunlei’s introduction, the selection and combination of “food-like stones” depend on factors such as color, texture, shape and size. One has to choose small and lifelike stones that resemble ordinary delicacies in appearance. Therefore, one has to be observant and attentive while collecting and selecting peculiar stones in the process of searching for and purchasing stones.

Take the color for instance. One has to select food-like stones that have natural colors, rich tones, purity, luster, magnificence and vividness and then arrange them in combination on the plates. Delicate, exquisite, lustrous and fragrant, the stones on the plates look as if they have been either stewed, braised, sautéed, simmered, or stir-fried.

The texture refers to the structure, density, fineness, smoothness and so forth. It requires a hard inside, a smooth and satiny appearance, clear translucency, and a hardness level ranging between 5 and 7. With such a texture, the stones will exhibit similar visual qualities and impressions peculiar to food or delicacies.

Next is the shape of stones. After the rocks from deep within the earth’s crust are exposed on the earth’s surface, they will undergo natural weathering such as wind erosion, solarization and rain erosion and break into pieces.

Then they will be carried along by glaciers, rivers and winds year after year, hit by rocks and rubbed by gravelly sand, which gives them various unique and peculiar shapes. Small and exquisite, rich yet simple, the exquisite and unique stones resemble either fish, meat, vegetables or fruits, leaving a memorable impression on the spectators.

The most popular kinds of stones combined to make “a feast of peculiar stones” on plates are agates and color stones from the Gobi Desert, Hetian Yu (jade from the Hetian region), Huanglong Yu (the yellow dragon jade or the Huanglong jade), ventifacts, pork stones, quartzite and so forth.

This is owing to the strikingly vivid resemblances between the high- quality stones and the delicacies in real life in terms of the shape, texture and color.

Once enough “food-like stones” are collected, the next step is to select and combine stones. Different stones are classified according to kind, shape, color and size, rinsed, arranged, designed and combined carefully, presented in an elaborate layout, and decorated with scallions and green leaves.

Then a dazzling array of lifelike delicacies and dishes is presented on the table, which is called “a feast of peculiar stones”.

After many years of accumulating stones, Wu Chunlei’s collection also includes meteorites, stone artefacts, stones resembling human faces, pictographic stones and other categories. It is his dream to establish a museum of peculiar stones and to boost the tourism in Kazuo County through the deep integration and development of the culture of peculiar stones and tourism culture.