A Wanderer Journal

It was a hot day at the time I visited the shop. A bit exhausted from the tour we had at the Great Wall, still, out of curiousness and excitement I pushed myself into the shop while thinking that it would be just another souvenir shop in a tourist destination like Beijing. Too bad I forgot the name of the shop. Chinese characters get me lost too many times.

The souvenir shop’s divided in several sections where each of it has their specialties. Not far from the entrance my attention caught a small cubicle with a man inside. He was concentrating on what he’s doing at that time, looked busy with sheets of paper. When I approached his cubicle I realized that he was doing paper craft. Knew that I came to his cubicle, he looked at me and smiled—a warm, genuine and sincere smile, and then he tried to communicate to me in a language that I don’t even understand up to now. But from his gestures I could understand at that time that he offered me one or more of his works, a bunch of paper craft. He’s a crafter at this shop where we can watch the workers crafting the stuffs they sell. We tried to communicate through whatever crossed our minds since we didn’t have a language to connect ourselves. What caught me was the way he tried to persuade me into buying one of his works was unlike the other sellers I met before, he used his smile and his gestures and I felt a big sincerity in him. He was patiently left his works and came to me to serve me in choosing what I wanted. After I tried to explain it to him that I am a married man, he showed me this Dragon-Phoenix and the scripture “happiness” which then I felt in love with and decided to bring it home—not surprisingly, with a good price. After a day of fake smiles and found no sincere people in this place, this man really changed the way I see a souvenir shop, I could’ve wrong but I didn’t care.

Travelling for me is not merely getting from one place to another. It’s not the distance I will spend from point A to point B, for example, but it’s all about the things I get during I spend times in travelling, all of the experiences that count. Travelling is a spiritual activity for me personally. Every time I go to a place I always looking for experiences beyond mere physical matters, see it in a spiritual perspective. Meeting this guy in his small cubicle was one of those great moments I had while travelling. I wasn’t just bringing home his work, but also a memory of his genuine smile and sincerity as well.