The Wedding - part 1 of 4

Today, I was in my flat, sleeping on the sofa, about 2pm (still suffering from jet lag) when I got a message from 哥哥， inviting me to a wedding in nearby Tongren. "You coming?". Caution to the wind, and quite unlike me,  I said "Yes!", and started packing.  "Take a taxi!".  Well, taking a taxi in England is not too difficult.  Just ring up and ask.  However I'm in China.  Firstly I have no number, and secondly they speak a dialect I don't understand and they don't understand my Chinese.  So I rang a frienconfirmed where Ideas headedd.  This may surprise my family, but I am starting to 'get' friends.  It is a standing joke in the UK, that I have no friends.  Anyway I asked a Chinese friend and they ordered me a 'didi'. (A taxi service like Uber).  When the Car turned up I went to get in the back, but discovered that the drivers wife son and daughter were there!  So I jumped in the front confirmed my destination (I spoke Chinese and he understood me) and we headed to Tongren.  I watched the scenery out of the window.  Small heavily wooded hills and mountains with small villages in between.  Then Tongren.  Big high rise flats everywhere.


Every mile brought more and more blocks of flats each maybe 30 storeys high, and as we moved from the outskirts, I saw the people!  It was like a football match had just let out!  I have never seen so many people...the pavement was covered with them.  The driver pointed out the wedding venue and dropped me off.  The crowds were not so dense here, but the buildings were tall...and so many of them!


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