Longtan Hu

Went shopping today for the ultimate Chinese souvenir - name chops for the kids! What's the point of having a Chinese name and not being able to seal documents in style?!

Off to Panjiayuan antiques market, where master carvers ply their trade, designing and working the stone seals by hand. We spoke with a few guys and finally settled on one Master Li, who seemed to be right for the work that we wanted.

The pick-up a few days later was an absolute fiasco: We had about 15 minutes to find the shop (based on a fuzzy low res half-downloaded WeChat shot) from amongst over 200 stalls spread throughout 10 or so alleyways. We were so pleased when we found it! Then we had the crazy problem of the shopkeeper (a friend of a friend of a friend of the carver) who wanted confirmation from the carver that it was all paid up - Master Li was of course not reachable on the phone. To add to the general chaos, the lady in the shop next door kept almost taunting the guy and saying that she had probably heard that we had already paid.

To make a long story short, as we were in an obvious hurry and told them that we were racing to meet friends for the Acrobats, the guy eventually gave in and we grabbed the chops and ran!Read more