In the action movie "Face Off," Nicolas Cage puts a pair of headphones on a small boy to put him at his ease while all around him a fierce gun battle rages.

When I put on headphones in Shi Letian's Sennheiser headphone store, I was reminded of the soothing power of music that I remembered from that scene in the cinema.

Shi Letian is pictured in her small Hangzhou agency.

The 68-old-year lady is sitting in a 5-square-meter crowded room that is an exclusive agency in Hangzhou for Sennheiser, the German hi-fi manufacturer.

Featuring all types of Sennheiser headphones piled in shelves and desks, a major attraction of the store is "Old Lady Shi" herself.

She is well-known among music lovers in Hangzhou mainly because of her forte: non-stop chat, especially chat mingled with English words and Cantonese.

The nickname "Old Lady Shi" is one of respect, and it originates from her good name when she was in the retail business in an electronic market on Hushu Road N.

When you entered the market, anyone would tell you exactly where Old Lady Shi's store was and it was a popular haunt of numerous Hangzhou audiophiles.

Though Shi has now closed her retail store and began to focus on wholesale three months ago, many people still buy from her because of her reasonable price, great service and of course the opportunity to chat.

Her customers describe her as "progressive, super talkative, mystical and fashionable."

One has said: "I love to talk with her, she never deceives, a normal person but great."

Another describes her as "awesome." Yet another says: "She's an absolutely fashionable old woman."

Conversations between customers and Shi range from Chinese history to the information age, from feudal society to world politics, and those nonstop, unrestrained and vigorous talks are much welcomed by her customers.

Shi started her business in 1994 after she retired from her job as a languages teacher.

"Music can heal people's hearts, music belongs to everyone, that's why I chose to sell headphones, as an indirect way to spread music," Shi says.

Shi loves to read and the latest work by her bedside is a business novel called "Trap" written by Wang Qiang who is popular among young readers.

She is very much in favor of a sentence in the book: "Selling goods is equal to selling thoughts."

"I hope my goods are acceptable, thus I am content," she says.