We always wanted to know more about the origin of the jades in our collection. So in 1993 we visited the oasis town of Hetian in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Xinjiang lies in the northwestern part of China. It takes about 7 hours flying from Beijing to reach Hetian which lies on the southwestern border of the Taklamakan desert. Taklamakan is an Uyghur word which means ‘Place from where no one returns’. We will never forget the view when we landed in Hetian. The snow-covered peaks of the Kunlun mountains formed a majestic backdrop for the town and looking in the opposite direction the sands of the desert vibrated in the scorching heat. The Kunlun mountains are the birthplace of the famous ‘Hetian jade’, much esteemed by the Chinese people. Apart from being carved into small pieces of art, pebbles are much in demand as fondling stones. Jade is cool to the touch and thousands of years of tumbling in raging rivers has given the pebbles a soft texture which belies their hardness. The Chinese love to play with their jades and being jade lovers ourselves we could not resist the temptation to search for fondling pieces in the White (Yurungkash) and Black (Karakash) Jade River. But distinguishing jades requires years of experience and after some failed attempts we decided to leave the searching to the locals and try our luck on the jade market. Minutes after reaching the market we were surrounded by thirty to forty eager sellers pushing and shoving to reach that foreigner who showed interest in jade pebbles. And when we finally returned to our hotel, our pockets were filled with river jades in an array of different sizes and colors.