Donghai already had plenty of quartz and skilled labor, as well as entrepreneurs who were willing to experiment. Wu Qingfeng, a former editor at the Crystal Museum who now leads boot camps for wannabe crystal entrepreneurs, says that in the late 1980s, artisans learned to modify washing machine motors so they could polish crystal necklaces, previously a manual job. When there wasn’t enough raw crystal to keep up with demand, manufacturers resorted to glass from beer bottles to make beads. People in Donghai told us they recall the shortage becoming so dire at one point that restaurants and bars ran out of beer. With the domestic crystal supply tightening up, local entrepreneurs were increasingly traveling all over the world to find new sources of raw material.