There are streets and streets of souvenir and food stalls in the Yuyuan Gardens. I stopped at a stall selling Chinese seals. The Chinese seal is a personal printing stamp which can be used in lieu of signatures in government orders, personal documents, contracts, poems, paintings etc in ancient China. My Chinese friends once told me that the banks up till today still use seals for their key documents and that they are carefully locked up in bank vaults after use. This stall in Yuyuan Gardens was making personal seals for fun use. First you have to write your name on a paper and pass it to the seal maker who then makes a stamp out of your name at the bottom of a figurine that you have to choose as well. And all that is done while you wait.
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