I visiteda shop selling folk handicraft, Folk Craft Gift near the Forbidden City. And I was surprised to find many foreign visitors in the shop during my visit.

On the shop's shelves rest a large array of baubles: bamboo books, opera masks, bronze vessels, Shao Lin swords, wood sculptures, earthen wares, etc. The prices are comparatively low.

I picked up a bamboo book with a poem of Li Bai, the most renowned poet in Tang Dynasty. In the poem, he expressed his admiration for China's mother river - the Yellow river. Another set of four pieces of bamboo paintings depicts ‘the four beauties of ancient China'. Each of them sells around RMB 100. One small bronze mask with bulgy eyes caught me in curiosity. The owner told me that original mask excavated in western China a couple of years ago sparked a debate on the origin of Chinese culture. It is priced at RMB 200. Other interesting objects include Pi Xiu, ‘one of the nine sons of dragon', which eats only gold and silver. It costs about RMB 250.

The owner, Mr. Zhou, studied and worked in Japan for several years, is fluent with Japanese.