Pictures of Changzhou (My City)

This post is just going to be filled mostly with pictures that I have taken wondering around Changzhou. I think I have rambled-typed enough in my other posts that pictures are a preferred method to consume information currently . . . that and my internet it really fast right now and I can upload a bunch of pictures!!! I am not going to explain them to you so you may get a sense of how a foreigner would see China for the first time. You can try to read what the buildings say if you feel up to it. Come on, experience my daily life for just a little bit. There is something exciting about wondering around a place for the first time.Enjoy!

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Response to Comments Posted

  I know earlier that I stated that I have been unable to reply directly to comments, which is unfortunately still true, so I am using this blog post to respond to some of those comments. If you do not want to read because you have not posted comments then don't, but I will try and fill it with some information for all : ) and I added pictures!  This first photo was taken after reading that one of my reader stated they like neon lights. (Yes Mel, it is for you.) This is a "short" walk from my apartment, taken on a returning trip from a bookstore.

  Thanks for the tip about how to make rice as well.

  This one appeared more of a rhetorical question but I will I would like to respond anyway. I agree about there being nothing quite like being the only white face walking down the street. I have gotten to the point where when I see a foreigner I stare at them. When I am with other people I make a note to point out the foreigner to them as well. I stare more then the native population. Some Chinese people do stare at me but I have not really noticed it that much. If I do not feel like being stared at I just give them a light glare back and they look away, but some do not and it turns into a staring contest with locals. They usually win. 

  I have started to do something that is probably culturally/politically/(or a word closely related to the last two) incorrect which is that I started a foreign people count in Changzhou. From the moment that I arrived in Changzhou I have been recording foreigners that I have seen in a little note book that I carry with me. Since I cannot tell what country people originate from, although telling a White American from a White European is easier than you think, I have been recording based on skin color and my assumed ethnicity of the person. (This last sentence is why I say it might be culturally/(and what I just said above) incorrect but, that is how it is). I have not added anyone that has east Asian facial features because I cannot tell them from Chinese. There so few of foreigners that I can actually tell if I have seen them before and not accidentally count them twice. I will not go into the break down now but I have counted 65 foreigner in Changzhou from September 1st to November 1st. In doing this I am conducting a study of how many foreigner are in my city to see what the ethnic diversity is after 10 months living here for my personal information. I am not counting any foreigner I see in any other city besides Changzhou which has an urban population of around 3.6 million in the 2013. I thought about doing this in a city in America but there is much more diversity and you do not know who is an American citizen and who is not. In China you can correctly assume that the non-Chinese looking individual is not a Chinese citizen for I believe it is harder to become a Chinese citizen then an American citizen. 

  So, I would next like to respond to my dear old aunt and uncle (there not really that old . . . ) who asked about the fortune cookies of China. Well, in response, I have not seen a single fortune cookie alive in China!!! Not a single one, they actually are not even really a Chinese thing they were invented in California. You can read this article form the Smithsonian Website for more information: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cracking-open-the-history-of-fortune-cookies-28538557/?no-ist. As I am writing this I asked one of the Chinese teachers if they knew what a fortune cookie was. She gave me a questionable look and repeated the word. I then showed her a picture from the magical web and she still did not know what they were. I then enlightened her to the culinary incorrectness of Chinese food in American by informing her that we get these with our Chinese meal as a 'Chinese' desert along with a fortune written on paper placed inside the cookie. She found this rather funny and gave a laugh smile. Guess I will not get the answer to how they get the fortune in the cookie in China! So, while I am in China, eating REAL Chinese food, have an American fortune cookie for me!

  As for what I am cooking at home (my Chinese home) I still have pretty much limited it to rice with broccoli, trying a random other vegetable every now and then. I mostly eat all my meals at school for they serve breakfast, lunch, and diner to students. It is the weekends where I need to fend for myself. I have not yet cooked any meats at my apartment since I cannot read the label and do not accidentally want to buy pig intestines or cow tongue, although I am pretty sure I can tell it is cow tongue . . . I think. You might be thinking why do you need to know what it says on the packaging, you should be able to tell by the cut and look of the meat, well to that I say . . . they do not cut meat in the exact same cuts as they do were I come from! One also cannot to buy as many boneless cuts as you can in the U.S. I went looking for ground beef, a perfectly acceptable way to buy meat in a rural Indiana town and was told, by a Chinese friend who happened to be shopping with me, that I cannot just buy that here in China, I can get ground pork but must request that they ground different cuts of beef up for me to have ground beef. To a early beginner of Chinese the process of requesting this ground beef sound a little, no very, daunting when they eat many parts of the animal that are not generally consumed by the majority of the population in U.S. (That was most certainly a generalizing statement). So, to sum up this paragraph: I am scared of cooking meat in China.

  This picture below is of the ground pork, front and center, in the upper right you can see the pigs feet making an appearance.

  Up next is the air quality question. The air quality is questionable, I noticed the biggest difference when I went with a fellow teacher to her parents home in the country. I could breath fresh air. There are people who walk around wearing masks on their faces and I was told that in the winter it gets really bad, so I might need to buy a mask. I have not seen the sun in the same intensity that I did in the Midwest since arriving in China. One morning there was a combination of fog and intense pollution so that other foreign teacher said they could not see the buildings beside their apartment when they got up early in the morning for school. I woke up later that morning due to not having to be at school super early that day or some reason like that and only saw the fog slowly dissipating. I will have to give an update on the air quality as the winter progresses. I do like walking into stores and having the option to buy a decorative face mask. I will write a more complete blog post at a later date, still have to gather needed pictures.

  For those of you that requested or rather demand-stated that you wanted ice-cream mooncake you are tough out of luck . . . that is all I have to say on that matter. Actually . . . I also want to add that it I am only saying this because it would be irrational to mail them anywhere . . . and once Mid-Autumn festival is over regular mooncakes are kinda hard to find let along the ice-cream ones. So if you want ice-cream mooncakes come to China! Now that is all I have add about the issue. 

  To the comment about communicating in a culture whose language is not your native one and you really do not know the spoken language in that country . . . you are completely right about not being able to understand it until you experienced it. I am now able to connect to all the Spanish speakers with very limited English skills who I have interacted with in my years of life. It is harder then you think to learn another language, even when you live within that country. The quoted comment of "if you are going to move to this country you should learn English." is no longer relevant in my eyes. I would almost go so far as saying that if you have not experience living in a different country or have not learned a second language you really shouldn't demand that of others. You can still function rather well without knowing the native language of that country. It is a little strange never knowing what the people around you are saying and it is really frustrating when people talk so fast, or they just assume that you know no Chinese because you are white and they are not patient enough to let you use the little knowledge of Chinese that you do know. This makes me a little hesitant to practice because I would then be making them take more time out of their day then they appear to want to give. (This is not true of everyone that I meet but it is true). I am sure this is exactly what some of the Spanish speakers feel like, so they just give up learning English and still get along rather well. I do sometime just want to understand random background conversations for once instead of hearing a constant drone of Chinese, not that it sounds bad. I just want to understand!

  On to the next thing! My pets still are alive, which is good . . . yay!! Yes, it would be really difficult to have horses while living in China, or steers, or anything that is not a dog, cat, or small house pet. Since my arrival I have only seen cats, dogs, the occasional bird and assorted small house pets at a questionably meeting PETA standards run pet shop in the basement of a mall. The birds there seemed happy; they kept singing. I did ask someone who lived in Changzhou his entire life if he had ever touched a pig and he said yes. I then clarified and asked if it was an alive pig, it did not count if he touched pig meat! He then had to admit that he has not touched a pig, or a horse, or really any farm animal. I never thought I would say that I missed seeing large farm animals so much. Although I did not help with carrying for them I still miss not seeing the cow that my parents raise hanging out in the pasture as I drive down our long lane. 

  When it came to traveling to Nanjing alone I was not very afraid, not saying that I did not take precautions. So far in my time in China, I have felt very safe. I would not say I was crazy or really brave, I just knew it would be fine. 

  About that complete Chinese meal Uncle Victor, I will have to see what I can do because I have yet to be taught how to do anything besides roll dumplings. So, we will just have to see.

  This is now the end of my response (as you can see because there is only a paragraph left). I want to thank all others who left only comments, I enjoy reading them. If anyone has any other questions please post them and I will respond (maybe not right away, but I will respond!).  I have also added a Follow by Email, so you will be informed as to when I post a blog and do not have to randomly keep checking, and a Contact Form, for those of you who have wanted to get in contact or would like to ask a question without it being posted for the world to see. Just put in your email address and the message and it will come to me. Keep enjoying life and can someone in America please eat potato salad for me in the coming week or two and let me know how it tastes!!!

Making Dumplings

  I had the opportunity to help in the making of dumplings. During the National Holiday I was invited to visit a teacher's family in the countryside. She is also the teacher that picked me up from my hotel in Shanghai and helped me with everything really. I was honored to go with her, her husband, and their eight-year-old daughter to the rural outskirts of Changzhou. This teacher was from a family of three children. She had a sister and brother which is more unusual in general but more common in the rural and older generations. Her parents made their livelihood by growing and selling planet: bushes, flowers, tree, etc.
  While I was there it was suggested that maybe I would like to help them make Dumplings to which I heartily agreed. After our trip to the nearby town to see the plant shops, which is what the area is know for, I was taken to the kitchen to begin my lesson on dumplings. I did not make them from scratch start to finish, what I learned was how to shape them. The dough was pre-made and bought from a shop in town and the teacher's mother had made the meat filling. Below you can see me spooning the filling onto a special shaped dough. For these dumplings the dough was cut into the shape of a triangle with its top cut off. The filling was positioned near the top of the triangle and the dough was folded over this filling. It was rolled one and a half time. You then brought the ends together, wetting you finger with water to use a glue, connecting the opposite sides. It was not that difficult but without being shown I would not have had the slights clue regarding how the shape was to be formed.

  Below are completed dumplings. Following their shaping they were submerged into boiling water for about 10 minuted then removed and were able to be eaten. We consumed them for diner that evening, and I will have to hand it to the cook for they were quite delicious. I did not leave the house that evening without being offered and given dumplings to take home and eat. 

人山人海

  Before heading to China I read this saying in a book 人山人海 which directly translates to 'people mountain people sea.' Which literally means that there are a lot of people. Living where I am I do see a lot of people but it is nothing like what I witnessed during the National Holiday when I went to Nanjing. China has coded their laws to deal with the large population of 1.3 billion people that they have which, to put it into some sort of perspective, is one billion more people than currently live in the United States. Because of this the government has made it a law that any new building that is constructed must be a minimum of five stories. If it is not going to be then special permission must be granted. When you visit China you will still find buildings or homes that are under five stories but that usually means that they are older. In the case of my apartment building the first five floors are part of a shopping mall, the sixth floor is offices and floors 7 through 23 are apartments.
  During my week and even on the weekends I do not always notice that there really are so many people. Rush hours gets rather crowed but not too much for me to handle, I alway have my personal bubble of space around me. I have included a video to show how busy the streets are when I walk home around 6:00 pm.

  I have gotten use to the number of people, just passing it off as living in the city. However, during the National Holiday, I saw the most people I have ever seen in one place in my entire life. National Holiday is as you can guess a week long holiday that celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st. During this week teachers and students can have seven days off work. Others can get the entire week or at least three days off, this leads to many people travel to places all around China to visit family or to see important sites. Before I made plans I was told by several teachers that I may not want to travel far because of the many people that would be traveling as well. I decide that I was going to travel to a difference city during one of the seven days but I spent the rest of them in Changzhou. I was able to see several sites that are famous attractions within Changzhou as well as relax and sleep. The city that I decided to travel to was Nanjing. 

  A previous capital of China, Nanjing is a popular tourist destination, I wanted to visit it for its historic role in China's past. With the help of a teacher I booked a high speed train ticket to Nanjing for October 4th. That morning I awoke, headed to the train station, and boarded a train to Nanjing. I had decided to travel there by myself since the other Chinese teachers at my school were busy with their own plans and the foreign teachers that I came over with were busy as well. I also wanted to see how I could do by myself and also needed the day of feeling personally independence. One of the Chinese teachers had written out directions to all the places that I wanted to see with instructions, I also had my phone and could call her if I needed help since she grew up in Nanjing. 

  Once arrived at my destination I noticed the increase of people. They were everywhere. I headed from the train exit to the subway stations which was underneath the train station. I need to buy a ticket to the subway station that the teacher had mentioned. There were giant ticket machines which were similar to ATMs where you would select the subway line, then the stop that you would get off. After that the machine would show how much you were to pay, you would pay and then it would spit out your subway token and any change. I really had no idea how to buy the ticket so I got in a line in front of the seven ticket machines and watched what other people were doing. When it came my turn I was kinda staring blankly at the screen giving an 'I have no idea as to what I am doing look' which successfully gave the message to the young couple behind me that I needed help. They asked me where I needed to go in English and I was able to show them the paper. They pointed out the English language button and then how to choose what line and subway station that I needed. With their help I successfully purchased my token. Here is a picture of my token (I know my hand looks weird and creepy in this picture I really have no idea how I was even holding my hand like that, but yes I still have all my fingers!!)

  I used this token to get on the Subway, you swipe it just like you would a card and it opens the gate. 

 I then follow the signs (which had Chinese and English). The largest problem was making sure that I went the correct direction. When I got on the subway the accepted convention was to push yourself into the subway and then push yourself out of the subway. So that is what I did.

 I had to transfer trains to get to the stop that I needed.

 I was actually quite easy to ride the subway for in each car they had the train line shown with names and everything. The station line would be above the door with the names in Character and Pinyin (which used the Roman alphabet (A-Z) to write the sound of the character) I am able to read this easier than the character so it helps quite a bit. As each stop went by the little LED light that represented it would turn red to indicate that it has passed. When a stop was approaching it would blink yellow.

 My twenty minute or so subway ride ended and I existed near my location. I had made it to a completely different city and yet when I walked up out of the subway onto a path I was perhaps more lost than I had been all day. Luckily I found a map, unluckily it was all in Chinese Characters. I stood staring at the map (pictured below) for a few seconds when a young woman asked me in English if I knew where are present location was on the map.

  I told her that I really had no clue but I could try to help. We compared notes on what attractions we were headed to, found they were relatively exactly the same ones and decided that we would wonder around together. For the next eight hours we wondered around the Zhong Mountain Scenic Are visiting the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum, Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty, Open-Air Music Hall and  Mai-ling Palace finishing our journey off at the site of a Confucius Temple that appear to me like an large bazar complete with a temple as its focal point.
  So the picture directly below is me with Yinny, the Singaporean that I meet (mentioned above), she actually took this picture on her phone and sent it to me among the many others she took of the two of us. I was grateful since my iPhone camera's memory was all used up before the day was over. I choose this picture especially for it shows how crowded it was as well as the trial to get a good picture without getting random other people taking a photo on their electronic device in your picture with your electronic device that will probably be in someone else picture taken with their electronic device and . . . well . . . you get the point.

  The next several pictures that I have added are all about the people. Which was more interesting on some level than the actual sites that we admired. I also added a picture of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen since he was instrumental in the fall of the last Chinese Dynasty the Qing and the founding of the People Republic of China. He is the pale statue in the second to last picture. The last picture was taken at the Confucius Temple which had light beams on it I think. It was actually really hard to tell which building was the actual temple. Hope you enjoy the pictures, sorry if they are a little blur, that is accounted to my phone and the many people . . . never my lack of photographical abilities . . . haha. 

The Car with Wings!

  So, I was walking to my first ever English Corner last night and I saw something that just made me stop and take a picture. It was a smart car with wings attached to the back of it. I personally thought it was quite hilarious and wanted to share. (See below)
  Those wondering what English Corner is, no worries I will tell you. For Chinese individuals who want to improve their English but may be working or are out of school, they are still able to practice by attending English Corner. It included both Chinese individuals learning English and Native English speakers. We meet to the side of a bookstore/coffee shop (咖啡 this is coffee in Chinese by the way) in a small room. How it generally works here is that a person leads a discussion topic that everyone prepares some thoughts on and then they talk about the issue. This may be different from other English Corners but I would not know. They meet once a week at 7:00 Thursday evening until 8:30. At this one there were nine Chinese individuals, three Americans (including myself) and a British man. The topic that they were discussing about this week was homosexuality and it was very interesting to hear the Chinese view point on the issue. The discussion did turn towards the Chinese education system and ended up lasting past 9:00. I do not know what the topic will be next week but I think I will continue to go. It gives me something to do in the evening and I also can hear from Chinese citizens their thoughts on topics allowing me to learn more about the Chinese culture. Enjoy the picture of the car, it makes me happy just looking at it.

Frank, Fiona, and Sam . . . My New House Pets

  I wanted to introduce you to my new pets. Since this is my first time being moved out I have had to get use to living by myself. I have found this more difficult because nothing living shares my apartment. To make this better I decided to get a pet, and not just any pet, the perfect pet. It started when I was walking with the teacher that is responsible for my foreign papers and getting my permeant residence visa. I needed to have a photo taken and we happened to walk along a road that I had yet to go, it was on this trip that I noticed a small flower shop. I had a vase that I bought to put the flowers that the school gave me on my first day. Unfortunately, those flowers were at their end and I had an empty vase. So, I decided that I would revisit the shop at a later date to browse their selection.
  That next weekend, on the way back from a food run, I returned to the road and went into the shop. When I entered the owner was helping two young women find flowers for a bouquet. I glanced around the room that was rather small, it had potted plants on the left wall and individual flowers on the right. I just stood there until the two women left. Having decided on my purchases I proceeded to ask in my limited Chinese how much certain items were. I purchased a peach flower for my vase and made an unexpected purchase of a small plant that I felt I just had to have for my apartment, both of which are below.

   I was rather impressed with the fact that I was able to buy my items with just pointing and a little help from my phone. Before I left I tried to ask him how often I should water my potted plant, part of the reason was that I never had a plant quite like this one before. I looked up the words for plant and water and showed them to him. After a little bit of me pointing to my phone (which led to him first thinking I wanted to be WeChat buddies, which we did became), my plant, and trying but failing miserably to understand any of his Mandarin I recognized the hand gesture for ten, which is making a plus sign with your fingers and also the word for day. I finally understood that I should water the plant every ten days, at least that I what I hope he said. The plant has not died yet so I must be doing okay. When I returned home with my plant and flower, the flower I put into the now empty flower jar and the potted plant I sat near my bed, I decided that I was going to name my potted plant. After slight thought I had a house pet plant named Frank.
  I did not realize how much I enjoyed having something else living in the same apartment as me. I did not want to get a cat or a dog since I was gone all day and did not want to worry about the clean up issues. So, I invested in a small maintenance pet; you just have to water the plant every ten days. After about two weeks I liked Frank so much I decided to expand the population in my apartment and buy another plant pet. This past weekend I once again returned to the plant shop. After a few weeks of practicing Mandarin I was a little better than before however I still did not understand everything that he was saying to me. I did understand him enough to buy two new plant pets instead of one . . . I could not decide on which one to buy. Below you can see Fiona on the left with the pink flowers and Sam on the right. While my buying plants and giving them names my be a tad strange it has allowed me to make my apartment more homey (although I am by no means replacing my family with plants!). I am think about buying a small one for my desk at school, quite a few of the other teachers have a plant on their desk, I find it rather funny that quite a number of these teachers have a type of cactus as their desk plant. I hope my pets plants survive until June and I am already planning on what teachers will take the best care of them when I leave!!

A Chinese Wedding

   I was honored and touched to be invited to a co-worker's wedding. She had known me for all of two and a half weeks before she gave me an invitation, which she had kindly translated just for me into English. When I received the invitation I had no idea where it was or how I was going to get there but I should have known not to worry since the other teachers made sure to work out who would take me to the wedding in advance. The wedding was to take place at 12:08, since, in Chinese, the sound of the number eight ba is very close to the sound fa meaning fortune. Just as some believe that it is bad luck for a groom to see his wife in her wedding dress before the wedding there are certain things that are done at Chinese weddings. If you set the time of your wedding on the time of fortune hopefully it will carry over into your marriage. About one and a half hours before the set time I was picked up by a young teacher who took me to the wedding.
  We arrived at the building that was to hold the wedding, which is pictured above. Before I continue there are certain things that I need to clarify.
           1. Most Chinese couples have already been legally married and living together for several weeks or months before the actual wedding ceremony. In the United States we have the wedding and the signing of the certificate on the same day, since it is the completion of the ceremony where the couple is recognize as legally married by the United States Government. In China the legal part can only be completed in the offices of the Civil Affairs Bureau, where all the documentation and signing is done. So, the ceremony is not what legally marries a couple in China, it is just to inform the rest of society about their commitment. What then causes a couple to wait to have their wedding so long after they are legally wedded is that many hold their weddings on holidays so the entire family can attend. Since it is a holiday that means no one will be in the office to complete legal part, so after the ceremony the would not be legally married. Waiting has become a more common thing since they can get married, live as a married couple, and then have a ceremony when it is convenient. As I was looking up what exactly was involved in a Chinese marriage I found the marriage laws of China, which you can read if you go to this link (http://newyork.china-consulate.org/eng/lsqz/laws/t42222.htm). I found it very interesting for it has put into law such things as a woman right to keep her own name, responsibility for any children resulting from the marriage and the child's duty to care for the parents. Check it out if interested.
           2. I also want to point out that my experience has been with one wedding, there are over one billion people in China so one wedding does not describe every other wedding experience. This was mine, as a guest, but I will try to point out variations that could occur.
  Back to my story, after arriving we sat at one of the round tables (pictured below). On each table was a Lazy Susan on which many different dishes would be served. As it is a traditional Chinese meal certain custom are present such as one does not dish a plate of food for oneself. If you eat at such a meal you would use your chopsticks to take just a bite size amount and eat that directly from your chopsticks then take another bite from that dish or a different dish. That would mean that you would be literally sharing all the food dishes with everyone else at the table (sorry to all the germaphobes out there). The only time that you would dish your place of food not using the same chopsticks would be if you are sick. The plate is then pretty much their for any bones that you might need to spit out. (Although I describe this as a traditional way to eat food it is how most family eat as well as when families go to restaurants . . . pretty much the only time they do not eat like this is when they go to a western restaurant or they are trying to make the westerner feel welcomed, if then).

  On the Lazy Susan, in the direct center were wines/juices and cigarettes for those at that table. It would be a rude sign to the guests to not provide complimentary boxes of cigarettes. You can see the stack of boxes in the picture below. It was not unseemly for a guest to open up the pack and smoke a cigarette right at the dinner table. I was given a pack and told to take it even though I do not smoke; it was the party gift.

  A Chinese wedding normally takes place indoors at a restaurant. Where an American wedding would have a wedding ceremony at a church, outdoors, or even in front of a judge then they would move to a different location to a wedding reception. This is not the general case for Chinese weddings. The wedding ceremony and the reception are at the same location, this is in part do the lack of space and cost to have two different venues. Some do have their weddings outside and create a more western style but if it rains then there better be a plan B. Guests at a Chinese wedding get to eat while watching the ceremony take place, which was rather strange for me to experience. Before the wedding started guests were able to look at wedding pictures on a giant screen at one end of the hall. The wedding pictures are no joke in China, the bride is truly made to look her most stunning and goes through several different dresses during the photo shoot. I call it a photo shoot for that is really what it seems to entail. The location of the shoot is chosen specifically for the scenery that it offers. The wedding pictures cost quite a lot and they appear to be worthy of the pricing for they make the couple look like models in a wedding magazine.

  When the wedding started we had already been given several food dishes to eat from so we turned from our food to watch the entrance of the bride and groom. This was announced by a gentleman who was the host of the wedding. (For a Chinese wedding a professional host is hired to introduce the couple, he announces when they are saying their vows, and let everyone know what is happening and when.) So, he announced the couple and the groom appeared at the stage. He then walked toward his bride, who was waiting with her father. The groom collected his bride and they both walked towards the stage. They then had their ceremony. It was very different in that there was no one officiating the wedding, only the host (he was not a minister but he also spoke in Chinese so I am not sure exactly what he said). The ceremony also did not appear to have any religious elements to it at all. The wedding was more western and took western traditions which can make it somewhat religious but these religious meanings were not implied or touched on. They read their vows to each other, in that the bride told the groom his vows and he repeated it after her, which means that they each took on the role of the minister/judge for the other. They then proceeded to light a single candle from two different ones and overflow one cup so it could spread it into the different cups on each side it if via a metal tube located on each side of the cup. The parents of the couple were invited onto the stage where both fathers gave a speech. Thus the ceremony ended and the couple walked down the isle.
  Yet, all was not done for the now ceremonially married couple. Instead of a more western wedding where the guest find the bride and groom to wish them luck the bride and groom go to each table, drink a toast and thank the guests for attending their wedding. The toasting is done in a tiny shot glass and I was told that the groom has to have actual wine in his cup for each toast, the bride can cheat and drink something else if she wants. So after about twenty tables I am sure that groom was feeling pretty good.

  Here (below) is the bride and groom having their glasses refill to toast the next table. I want to point out that during this entire time new dishes of food were still being brought to the table. Those at my table informed me that the more seafood served at a wedding the better the wedding is said to be and I would say that this wedding would be considered a good wedding.

  The rest of the wedding was more a reception where the bride and groom went from table to table then sat down and for their own meals. However, there was a large difference in that the host, that I mentioned above, had activities planned where the winner would receive a prize. They would play a song and have the guests guess what it was. They had one activity were they invited couples up to the stage and had them act out songs together, the winner got a very large teddy bear (see picture below, the host is to the far right in the picture holding the mic). Another activity was who could find a tie and a pair of heel from other guest at the wedding first. There were even activities especially for the children so they felt included and entertained.

  After going to a Chinese wedding I felt like it was more focused on the comfort of the guest, the bride and groom saw it as a great honor that you would come to their wedding and wanted to make it a fun and comfortable event. Which can be different from western weddings, at least some of the ones I have been to, where the guests are kept waiting, sometimes past the selected time and the focus is more on making the day super special for the bride and groom instead of the bride and groom making it as good an experience for the guests as they can. It presented a very different atmosphere than a western wedding, it also made it a rather louder affair. So I now end my tale for that was my experience of a Chinese wedding.