Bring your child to the Songzhuang store: get to know scents with your nose

Start with a glass of clear water

Don't rush to light incense as soon as you arrive. The shopkeeper will have the child rinse their mouth with clear water and sit quietly for a while to clear the nose. This step isn't a ritual; it brings the sense of smell back to a clean state so that later smelling is accurate.

One burner, one smell—no comparing good or bad

We set out two or three sample incense with clearly different scents and let the child smell them in turn and describe them in their own words. A bit sweeter, a bit cooler, like wood or like flowers—there's no standard answer. Smelling incense is about training perception and expression, not an exam.

The signboard is right by the counter

Hung at the entrance of the Songzhuang store is the physical signboard of "Liu Family Colorful Agarwood and Sandalwood Selected Incense Shop". The design of this signboard has obtained a national design patent (patent number CN202530328668.8); the name comes from the old incense and medicine shop depicted in the painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival. Showing your child this signboard is also a way to recognize a symbol of traditional culture.

Bringing your child to smell incense isn't about teaching them to tell expensive from cheap; it's giving them a pair of eyes and a nose that can discover scents.

The fun can continue at home

The store suggests using an incense-smelling notebook to record today's favorite scent, then finding similar smells in daily life back home. Turning one store visit into ongoing observation is more meaningful than buying an item.

This article is about in-store scent perception and parent-child experience; it makes no efficacy or medical claims and does not imply that agarwood has any effect on children's bodies or health.

Related reading