See the fancy brides.

Weddings are big business in China. In China now there is a strong western theme to weddings. Not the traditional Chinese wedding, and not the traditional Western wedding either, but the brides like to dress in something dramatic and beautiful.

Some of the outfits are reall "over the top" and we had a great laugh about these strange outfits in the window of a wedding planning organisation in Hangzhou. Feathers and "foufou" I hope they are more for show, or to somehow entice the bride to be to come in. If I was a bride and saw these aparations I would run a mile. Scary feathery things would not be for me. I wonder.

One of the other things that we see quite a bit of are groups of men (and sometimes women) playing cards. I don't know what game they play, but it is certainly a very popular activity and sometimes they sit on newspaper on the ground in front of shops, or they might play in the tray of a tricycle while waiting for their next job if they are a worker.

There is a group of four that are always playing on the step on front of one of the banks that we go to in the centre of Shaoxing, and we've come to be quite friendly with them although they don't speak English and we can't converse well with them.

Another thing that is common is men in particular carting a little wooden seat - looks like a small table - which they can sit on wherever they happen to stop. Grandfathers who look afte small children will often carry one to the park, so that they have somewhere to sit while the child plays on the playground equipment.

There is not a lot of public seating - so taking one's own stool is a good idea. Mind you I've seen great little fold up ones that would be ideal to carry, but I don't see them - I only see the little wooden ones. I have three in my apartment and they are used as seats or tables. Depends.

The Wedding Processions

The bride and groom's car.

The lead car with the brass band and drummer - second car with photographer

Apparently this is a custom that is known in this area, but not others. Certainly in other cities in this province, the wedding procedures are different. I find this quite amusing - quaint even. Generally this happens on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday as most of the weddings occur on these days.

A small truck or utility with about six musicians in red outfits with hats squeezed onto the back appears first of all, with the banging of the drums and the sound of trumpets. Behind this vehicle is a black car with someone holding a camera standing up with half his/her body out of the car. He/she is filming the procession for posterity.

The next car - adorned with flowers many of them stuck onto the car with sticky tape, appears and the bride and groom are sitting in the back. (I've even seen a smiling bride sitting next to the groom who was busily chatting on his mobile phone!) Then the families follow in several cars, often these are decorated with flowers or red and gold paper, and all the number plates are covered up with red and gold paper too. On Saturday there must have been many weddings as I was sitting in a pizza place in the city and it seemed nearly every five minutes another one of these processions passed by.