Beijing

Taking a few turnings off a  people-packed shopping street, the last thing I expected to see was a calligrapher practising with a bucket of water and some large paintbrushes in the middle of the road. He was calmly copying out a long poem from a book. Around him numerous people hovered and left, a policeman sat bored in a car watching, bikes and scooters drove around and over his work.

Having stood there for some time, mesmerised by his brushstrokes, he turned to me and said “Miss, I give you a word, as a gift”, and with that he wrote  me the following:

It is amazing how such a simple act made my day.