Woman collects over 600 meteorite pieces from uninhabited areas of NW China's Xinjiang

Yang Kexin, a woman born after the 1990s, has successfully retrieved over 600 pieces of meteoric stones from depopulated zones in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region over a period of five years.

Yang's keen interest in meteorites dates back to her childhood, when she frequently admired the stars in the sky at night.

Photo shows Yang Kexin, a woman born after the 1990s, observing a stone on the ground. (Photo/yangtse.com)

"When I watched the shiny stars in the sky, I used to wonder what they looked like and where they would land on Earth,” recalled the young woman, who comes from the Miao ethnic group from southwest China's Guizhou province.

Later, Yang became deeply drawn to photos of a meteoric stone that her friend from Xinjiang had posted on a social media platform. "It was so mysterious and so rare, and different from any other stones on Earth," she explained.

Photo shows Yang Kexin and her teammates posing for a picture during a trip in search of meteoric stones. (Photo/yangtse.com)

Inspired by the photos, in 2012, Yang decided to quit her job in Beijing and got into mining equipment sales in Hami, Xinjiang, where she spent most of her weekends and holidays searching for various stones, especially meteorites.

On one trip, when she went with three other companions to a local gobi desert on her daily search for stones, she discovered a small piece of meteorite weighing about 20 grams after three days of unsuccessful searches.

Photo shows students visiting Yang's science museum. (Photo/yangtse.com)

(Photo/yangtse.com)

"It was so precious and I have carried it with me all the time ever since, " Yang disclosed, adding that this discovery greatly boosted her confidence and made her more determined than ever to learn more about meteorites and throw herself into collecting more of these precious stones.

During her five years working in Hami, Xinjiang, Yang traveled more than 100,000 kilometers across gobi deserts, including the Taklimakan desert. During those trips, she encountered countless hardships, including sand storms and vehicle failures.

On one occasion, Yang was stranded by herself in a gobi desert in Lop Nor of Xinjiang for more than five hours without any cell phone signal after falling behind her other teammates. "It was the first time I felt deeply depressed and horrified," she recalled, explaining that this trip made her realize how crucial it was to learn outdoor survival skills.

Photo shows a small piece of meteoric stone. (Photo/yangtse.com)

Fortunately, Yang eventually managed to triumph over all these obstacles and collect more than 600 pieces of meteorites of all kinds during the expeditions, with a total weight of nearly 400 kilograms.

What is the value of these stones? Yang disclosed that for her, they are invaluable. However, she was once offered more than 10 million yuan ($1.55 million) for all her stones, which she turned down without hesitation.

In 2017, Yang returned to Guizhou for family reasons, and started to run an aerolite-themed museum exhibiting the various stones she collected.

Photo shows Yang holding a stone in her hand. (Photo/yangtse.com)

"It cost me more than 300,000 yuan to open this museum. Since I didn’t have enough savings, I borrowed some money," she said, adding that despite the high costs, she still decided to open the museum to the public free of charge, so as to better spread knowledge of stars.

"These meteoric stones are not my personal belongings. I am merely their temporary keeper," said Yang, who hopes that she will be able to open a bigger science museum in collaboration with local governments in the future.