Zhejiang Province 2

 The wedding-mobile

 Busting into the bride's quarters

 Groom putting bride's shoes on before leaving

 Bride and groom with Gogo's parents (groom's aunt and uncle)

 Tables in the banquet hall

End of runway with light-up, water-filled pillar things (eloquently put, I know)

The exceptionally ugly stuffed dog I was given as a prize for getting up and speaking -- my roommate thinks it's adorable 

Too much food 

Badminton shuttlecock factory where 10 million shuttlecocks are produced annually 

Attaching feathers to the base 

Birdies awaiting the next step of production 

Work 

Gogo's parents playing badminton on the factory's badminton courts 

Gogo's maternal grandma outside of her home 

L-R: Gogo's dad, Gogo's uncle, Gogo's cousin and his new wife, me, Gogo's aunt, Gogo's mom

The previous post covers the travels of the Friday after we arrived, which brings me to Saturday's wedding. It was in some ways very different than typical American weddings, yet had noticeable similarities. The events of the day started around 2 pm with the groom and all of his family invading the bride's house. I say "invading" because that is certainly what it feels like. In all Chinese weddings, the groom must struggle into his bride's house and fight his way into her bedroom (with the bride's family resisting and pushing him away), where he will find his bride dressed in her gown and waiting for him. While pushing his way inside the house, he must throw out candy and red envelopes (红包) full of money to members of her family in order to "win them over." The whole routine is, of course, done out of tradition, and is not completely serious. Nevertheless, it was extremely crowded, lively, and loud at this particular wedding, as I suspect it is at all. The groom (Gogo's cousin) was laughing most of the time, as were his friends. 

When everyone is ready to leave the bride's house, the bride must be carried out on the back of one of her uncles. This is symbolic of the time when brides had to be carried out of their villages against their wills to be married into families elsewhere, and apparently has become tradition at all weddings. From the bride's house, everyone made their way to the hotel banquet hall where the wedding ceremony and reception were being held. The mode of transportation is another interesting aspect of Chinese weddings. Cars are rented to carry the bride, groom, and family members to the wedding. In this particular wedding, the bride and groom's car was a Bentley, and the following cars were Mercedes -- all black. I've seen other "wedding brigades" in Beijing with red cars as well, but I must say black is sleeker. When we arrived at the hotel, we were told that the small fireworks that were supposed to go off when the wedding cars arrived were not yet ready, and that the brigade of cars should go around the block and come back. Haha. By the time we came back, they were ready.

Upon entering the banquet hall, there was a sort of dress rehearsal of the wedding (a bit last minute, no?), then the bride and groom headed to the entrance to greet guests. We waited in the banquet hall as 200+ guests arrived. Most began smoking immediately upon entering, and soon the room was a giant, foul-smelling grey cloud. Skipping ahead to the actual ceremony -- the lights to the entire hall were turned off so that the room was pitch black save for the stage and runway, both of which were made of plastic and lit up. This made for the feeling of being at a concert. To further the concert-y atmosphere, the ceremony began with the bride and groom walking down the runway singing to each other, each holding a microphone that carried the sound far and wide (and loud). They then kissed and proceeded up to the stage, where the vows began. Now is a good time to mention that the whole ceremony was hosted by a hired MC -- a young guy who did all of the talking and even sang a few songs. Throughout the vows, many people were talking and eating, which made for an interesting atmosphere. After the vows, everyone began eating in earnest, and the bride and groom went around to every table to make toasts. Eventually I was asked to get up on stage and introduce myself and give my best wishes to the bride and groom (in between performances by the MC and some 8-year old dancers). Gogo's mom wanted me to speak in three languages, so I used mostly Mandarin but threw in a sentence of English and a sentence of the local dialect (not easy to learn, FYI). It was another nerve racking experience in front of a large Chinese audience -- how do those keep happening?

The wedding ended early (there's drinking, but no dancing), and we were in bed by 10 pm. And that is that. Because I won't have time to post about the rest of this trip, I have included pictures of our tour of the Hangyu badminton shuttlecock factory as well (Owner of the company is a distant relative of Gogo's mom's). I have much more to post on (Frank's visit to Beijing and our trip down to Shanghai and Hangzhou, etc) but am leaving for the South of China and the Philippines on Sunday and won't be returning until February 17. May try to get one more post in before leaving, but if not, look for a new post in about a month!

Zhejiang Province

Inside the home of Daili  

Wall outside of Daili's home, reads "Former home of Daili"

Nianbadu's water mill  

Moss and stone make a green yinyang pattern in the ground in Nianbadu.  

Street in Nianbadu

Painted wall in Nianbadu

Not the funniest, but possibly the poorest translation job I've ever seen in China -- the trash can on the left reads "non-recyclable waste" in Chinese, and "No rubbish receptacle" in English. The trash can on the right reads "recyclable waste" in Chinese and "rubbish receptacle" in English. I guess this means a non-Chinese speaker would put trash in the recycling bin and nothing in the trash bin! 

Jianglang Mountain in the background, lovely tree in the middle ground 

Jianglang Moutain 

In between two parts of Jianglang Mountain -- on either side of us are huge slabs of rock 

L-R: tour guide, me, Gogo's mom, Gogo's dad, Gogo's uncle 

Pretty green mountains (even in December) behind Jianglang Mountian

Apologies for not posting in such a long time. Late December brought 5 finals due on Dec 13, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, the day after Christmas, and Jan 2. Needless to say, I did not have much time to blog. I am now on an 8 week break for the Chinese New Year and am soon departing for Hunan province, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. Frank's visit is coming to an end, and we are planning to spend his last day here cafe hopping in Beijing's well-known art district, 798. Before I get ahead of myself, this blog will be about my trip to Zhejiang (浙江) province, accompanying the parent's of my good friend Gogo to Gogo's cousin's wedding. The wedding took place in the small city of Jiangshan (江山), which is about 3 hours southwest of Hangzhou (杭州) and near the border of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces. Jiangshan has a population of around 100,000 people from what I gathered. It is known for green tea, the production of badminton birdies, and the historic and scenic places surrounding it. On our first day there (before the wedding), we drove to the old home Daili (戴笠), a famous member of and spy for the Guomindang (he has been called "Chiang Kai-shek's claws and teeth"); Jianglang Mountain (江郎山), a Unesco world heritage site; Nianbadu Ancient Cultural Village (廿八度), a renovated village with 900 years of history (now with very few actual residents); and finally, the ancestral home of Mao Zedong.

The home of Daili was interesting in that it was built with many nooks and secret passageways/staircases because of Daili's paranoia that he would be ambushed in his own home. There is a very interesting book written on him (in English) entitled Spymaster: Daili and the Chinese Secret Service, for anyone interested.

Jianglang mountian was quite a sight, as can be seen in the photos. It's most unique characteristic was that the three huge rocks it consisted of did not touch one another. We actually hiked in between the huge slabs in a narrow space only a few meters wide. At the base of the mountain sat a particularly lovely tree, which I took photos next to. It seemed very well situated and had a full, ovular shape.

The ancient town of Nianbadu, as I mentioned above, has been renovated in order to let tourists see an exemplary ancient village. Interestingly, as part of the renovation, almost all of the actual residents were kicked out and given new homes elsewhere. Only a few grannies and grandpas remained. A couple of the most interesting features of the village were the water mill and Confucius temple, all excellently maintained.

By the time we arrived at the ancestral home of Mao Zedong, it was closing and all the tour guides were getting ready to go home. We rushed through one museum set in a hutong style home, and left as it was getting dark. As a result, I cannot say much about it!

The last thing I'll mention was the difference in air quality between Beijing and Jiangshan. When we stepped off the plane in Zhejiang, the air smelled sweet to me. Perhaps there were flowers growing nearby, but I suspect my lungs have just become so accustomed to abominable Beijing air that I now detect a pleasant scent in more decent quality air. Pathetic.