pearl

China has harvested freshwater pearls for many centuries in the 'zhuji' of China. World production and cultivation of freshwater pearls is dominated by the Chinese, who grown the mollusks in lakes, rivers, and ponds within the Zhejiang coastal region (aka "the hometown of pearl"). These Chinese pearls are sometimes referred to as "Biwa" pearls, named after their freshwater Japanese counterparts from Lake Biwa, Japan. To produce a freshwater pearl, a small piece of mantle tissue from one mussel is placed into another mussel. This mantle tissue constitutes a foreign object or irritant in the gonad of the oyster that the mollusk will defend against by secreting nacre. China's saltwater 'Akoya' Pearl farms are located on the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong Province (aka Canton Province), and in Guangxi Province at Beihai & Hepu, both in the southern part of the country. The Guangdong saltwater pearl farms are situated in a protected bay at Liusha Gang, some 400 km south-west of Hong Kong and Macau.