Restaurant boss lady's son's wedding.

 On 23rd of December I got a wedding invitation from restaurant boss lady: Baozhen Li.  I translated it in WeChat and asked a friend where the place was.  it was don near the big indoor market.  I told her that I would be going, little realising that it was her son's wedding!

Anyhow, the Sunday before the wedding I contacted her to confirm that I would be attending and she invited me to come and book the place with her.  I was really busy and had to refuse; I dont think my refusal went down very well!  However, on the day of the wedding, about five minutes after I had eaten lunch, I got a WeChat invitation to her restaurant to eat lunch and then afterwards have a meal at the wedding.  Unfortunately, after lunch I was teaching and could not attend her restaurant, but confirmed that I would be there at the wedding after work.
After work I headed off to the big indoor food market and with a little help from a local resident and a map I found the hotel.  Like many hotels in China, it did not start on ground level!  It started on perhaps the first or second floor, so as I approached I had to go up a few flights of stairs before I came to the hotel and the function room.  The place was huge!  It looked like it had been set out for maybe three hundred people...a very big wedding.  I marched into the function room and looked around.  Mmmm no one I knew, so I walked on in and smiled at the surprised occupants who looked puzzled at the strange foreigner.

It is hard to give an impression of how big the room was, but if you double the above picture you would have a fair idea.  I then heard a voice I knew, it was Baozhen Li.  She walked towds me bowing her head and greeting me.  For a minute I forgot myself and made as if to give her a hug and but remembering that no one in China ever seems to hug, I just managed to change it to an awkward arm on her shoulder greeting!  She stepped back and bowed, hands together as if prating, and thanked me numerous times.  She seemed very pleased to see me.  She then explained who I was to the bemused onlookers.  They seemed a little more at ease after that!  She then immediately ushered me to a table with a lovely red sign on it.  It was only later hat I realised that it was the VIP table, which explained why the people there, the other VIPs looked so puzzled when I was sat there.   They had no idea who I was or why I was a VIP!  As I sat down, the woman in black seated at the table was introduced as Baozhen Li's sister.  This would have been more significant if it had not been for the fact that every woman that Baozhen Li introduces me to is her sister:  the term 'sister' seems a lot more fluid in China than in the UK!

right to left, Baozhen Li me and Baozhen Li's sister

However, I think that this woman was actually a real sister in the English sense of the word.  We talked a while.  I never managed to understand what she said her name was, but she was from Guiyan, the capital of Guizhou.  Baozhen Li came back and grabbed me by the arm and took me to the left hand side front of the stage, so I could see everything clearly.  I started to take photographs and videos.  Too many to upload here but they are all in an album here:

all the photos from the day

 The wedding started with all the pomp and ceremony of a Chinese Wedding (I'm and expert now...I've been to three! ... but one of those was only a celebration and not a ceremony).  The photos are all in teh album link above.  I'd like to put them here but it is just too time consuming and too difficult as I can never be sure when the VPN will work or how long before it will stop working!  Just a few clicks of the button allows me to make a Microsoft Album in One Drive, so I will mainly be using that!

Bride and groom walking on stage as the bride's maids and the grooms party opened 'feather-filled' umbrellas

The biggest longest kiss I have ever seen in China.  I've only ever seen two people kiss, both bride and groom!

Then the meal started.  How they managed to serve so many people so quickly, I'll never know, but they managed, and the eating and talking started.  It was then I realised that the groom was Baozhen Li's son!  The food was of the usual variety but was really quite good.  Then, as if by magic, people started to leave.  There is this strange phenomenon in China at the end of a meal.  In England I would expect to eat and sit around for hours doing small talk etc, but not so in China.  The meal starts and the baijiu (alcohol) flows.  People eat and toast everything and anything.  Then someone seems to have eaten enough and leaves.  Shortly afterwards everyone finishes and leaves.  Just like that.  Usually less than 45 minutes after the start of the meal.  I am used to it now but I much prefer to sit around, drink coffee and chomp on weird tasting crispy mints like we do in the UK!  And that was that, however, when I realised that the wedding was Baozhen Li's son's wedding I sought him out took the obligatory photo.

Oh and when I went back to get my coat, a couple of the ladies from teh table next to mine, who had been going round all the tables taking the leftovers and putting them in carrier bags came over for a photo with the foreigner!  Shortly afterwards, I sought out Baozhen Li, thanked her, making sure I did not attempt a hug this time, and made my way home.  All in all a lovely experience!"