Weddings and funerals

As I think I showed you before, Chinese girls love to pose and have their photos taken for their wedding in the Western white frothy wedding dresses. They always have the photos taken outside on the lake, in the park, on the beach, in a tree, on the rocks even outside of a church. Sometimes they have no fiance in mind, sometimes they do. Seeing them dressed for a wedding does not mean that they are actually getting married. The business of weddings is huge, like in the West, but a lot of it takes place whether or not you are getting wed.

A package deal which includes glamorous make up (and some of the girls are ravishing) and hairstyling, dress and bouquet rental and a hoard of photos, albumns etc, starts at about 1500rmb (CAD $275.00) and climbs to the average of between 3500 - 5000 rmb (CAD $625 - $1000) and beyond. Quality of make up and photography improves with price.

Hopefully I showed you some of these photos of the potential bride with or without partner and underneath their white froth they were wearing jeans and runners!

A traditional wedding may be in a red Chinese quipao (chinese dress) or like these models here in a beautiful red evening style gown. Red being the wedding colour. Sorry they were taken through a window but it was the best I could do at the time.

Today I saw a wedding car, in fact a stretch limo, with teddies and roses. Unlike in the West these flowers are real and they decorate several cars in the wedding party and all the doors and the back of the car as well. They look absolutely beautiful.




Now for the funerals. Because of the pressure on land here, most Chinese people are cremated and although I am assured that the body is taken to the crematorium in a coffin and special car after the family and friends have paid their respects and brought flowers or wreaths, neither Mick not I have seen a hearse yet. However what I have seen are these wreaths of artificial flowers which are hung on the outside of the building where the person who died used to live. Apparently they stay there for a week or two and are then removed, but I have seen some that look as if they have been there for some time. Here are a couple that were outside a shop that I passed.