Challenge 7: ACCOMPLISHED!
Challenge 7: Attend a Chinese wedding.
We've both always thought this would be one of our favorite chapters of the book to write, but to be honest we always doubted whether we would actually be able to achieve this challenge. Now, we'll not only be able to tell of the exciting events of today and also various other related anecdotes from our previous years in China (including Adrian's (in)famous "clock of death" story),We were miraculously invited to this wedding after completing our brief internship at the noodle restaurant. We met Michelle (the daughter of the owner of the noodle shop) at 6:00am to drive to her "brother's" hometown. It turns out the groom, Jiǎng Dōng 蒋冬, was actually her cousin. He and his bride, Lǔ Yàn’s 鲁燕, lived a few hours outside Lanzhou in a former top-secret nuclear bomb research and development town mysteriously named "Five Zero Four"!The wedding happened at three locations starting with a car processional (including us in the 3rd car!) going to the bride's house, then returning with her to the couple's new house, and finally finishing at a restaurant with a brief ceremony followed by lunch.The bride and groom (although initially appearing quite surprised to see us) were most welcoming and generously included us in all the proceedings. These included marching down the aisle (to "Amazing Grace"), a token exchange of vows (without a pastor - just a local wedding DJ) and the swapping of rings amongst huge pyrotechnics!After the interminable setting off of firecrackers and a toasting of baijiu involving everyone imaginable (we opted for only one of the customary three shots) the wedding ceremony was drawing to a close. But once the aunt of the groom found out Adrian could sing a Chinese song, he was whisked on stage to close the ceremony with a stirring rendition of Wang Lihong's "Weiyi" ("You're my Only One"). A few people even politely applauded.