A worker sorts artificially cultivated freshwater pearls at a pearl production factory in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province April 23, 2008. Zhuji aims to become an international production and distribution hub for artificially cultivated freshwater pearls. Zhuji began cultivating pearl clams from the 1970s, and it now supplies 70 percent of the overall Chinese market with pearl products, local media reported.

(Agencies via China Daily, April 24, 2008)