Located in the southwest of China, Lijiang is a gorgeous and tranquil city. The city boasts numerous winding bluestone walkways, quaint little houses, and silently flowing rivers. If a city could be likened to a person, Lijiang would be a pretty girl in anticipation of meeting someone special.
I met a boy on my trip to Lijiang last year. He seemed to have come out of nowhere. Yet we hit it off. We spent two productive days together—having the most cathartic chit-chats, leisurely meandering through those bluestone walkways, eating the best cheesecake in Lijiang, waking up at 5 am hoping to capture some nice sunrise shots, and gobbling down junk food at a local KFC. We became fast friends. It had never occurred to me that I would meet someone who I seemed to be on the exact same wavelength with.
He showed me six walnuts that he picked by himself on his trip to Tibet. He said that he was going to keep three of them and give the rest to me as a farewell present. I ate two. To my surprise, a half shell survived the demolishing act of taking apart walnuts. Acknowledging its uniqueness, I decided to keep this half shell along with the third walnut as something to remember him by. This third walnut was small enough to nestle comfortably in the half shell as if it epitomized our similarity in personality.
My friend left Liji...
