On my first visit to People's Park in Chengdu, the capital of China's Sichuan Province, I watched this woman draw Mandarin characters with intensity. It felt safe to photograph her skillful calligraphy as she occasionally acknowledged me with a smile, with acceptance. (The "ink" appeared to be water with a bit of coloring added to it, but it faded after some time and left no mark on the granite.)
Soon I noticed that she was speaking with some people standing nearby, young Chinese who were also observing her calligraphy. While speaking with them, she would glance toward me and smile. Then she began to draw an additional row of characters, all the time watching me.
Then one of the young men came to me, smiled and asked if I knew what the characters meant. Of course, I didn't know. He beamed at me and said, "It reads, 'Welcome to Chengdu!'"
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