Asia's largest conch museum will open in Dalian, a port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, with exhibits mostly donated by a local collector.
Zhang Yi, a local entrepreneur and deputy to the Chinese National People's Congress, has donated his entire collection, numbering over 3,000 to the museum, while the rest of the museum's exhibits, totaling 7,000, came from foreign collectors.
"As an entrepreneur, I have to retire one day," said Zhang, "but as a collector, my interest in conch shells will be a life-long business."
Zhang, now president of the Dalian Oceanic Fishing Group, developed his hobby for conchs when he was a young sailor. Wherever he went, Zhang would visit local conch museums and markets or looked for new collections on seashores in different countries.
(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2003)
