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A Long Flight for the Three Swallows

When the people of modernity-crazed China renovate their houses, they often get rid of their old furniture -- some of it passed down for generations. Here in antiquity-crazed Virginia, people can't get enough hand-made furniture, jewelry and artisanship. If colonial American furniture is unaffordable to most Virginians, Chinese cast-offs will do just fine.

That disparity in global tastes has created a business opportunity for the three Chinese sisters, whose middle name is Chinese for bird, who founded Three Swallows import business.  Three Swallows has warehouses in Shanghai and Norfolk, and retail stores in Richmond and Norfolk.

As Louis Llovio tells the story in today's Metro Business , the sisters employ buyers who travel through China and Tibet buying antiquities from villagers.

The pieces are delivered to the Shanghai warehouse, then shipped to Virginia -- two 40-foot containers every 45 days, says Gloria Li , the middle sister who runs the Richmond store. The 7,000-foot Richmond facility, which opened two years ago, is stocked with items such Tibetan religious antiquities, hand-carved sculptures and jewelry, 200-year-old chests and communist-era kitsch.

Bacon's bottom line : I wish Llovio had added a paragraph telling how the three Chinese sisters had arrived in Virginia and started the business. I'd love to know the story. I'm guessing that there is an Old Dominion University connection somewhere.