After meeting the family at dinner (the feast), we were back on the bus with them at 8am the following day. Little did we know it but for the best part of the next two weeks we were to be treated like royalty. This started with Alan’s father, the school principal, organizing two school mini buses to ship us around and a member of staff to be our tour guide.
Our first stop on Saturday morning was SeaWorld. Here we hand fed fish to the seals and watched a very famous dolphin and white whale show. This was good, and we realized that Christine has never been to a SeaWorld
, so it was a new experience for her. There was also an arctic enclosure that we walked through, the highlight being the polar bears, however there were so many people that we just had to get out! After a few photos it was time for lunch, we were off to a nearby restaurant for a steamboat. This is where there is a boiling pot of seasoned water in the middle of the table. There is also a buffet set up of raw food, the idea being that you take what you want and cook it in the pot. This includes chicken, beef, fish balls, cabbage, noodles, and in Dalian fresh seafood of course, including live crabs! 
The rest of the afternoon we spent a bit of time at the Bird Park and then the Zoo. The zoo was ‘open range’ but very different to Australia. There were also shows here, like the ele
phant show, which had elephants doing all sorts of unnatural things like playing soccer, making an elephant pyramid and walking on two legs. This was all to the tune of blaring techno music. They were very well trained, but the whole thing looked a bit cruel. The highlight of the zoo was throwing celery and carrots to the bears (again a bit unnatural to have bears begging for food in a zoo) and seeing people pay money to throw a live chicken into the tiger or lion enclosures. 
The day finished with a visit to a restaurant that is supposed to have some of the best seafood dishes in Dalian, and we weren’t disappointed, it was delicious and the plates were literally piled up in front of us at the table. Another thing that we have found amusing is that after dinner, everyone stands at once to leave the restaurant. It is funny because the three of us are usually the only ones left sitting, as we obviously don’t understand the conversation that takes place organizing everyone to get ready to leave.
Sunday was the second day of sightseeing with the mini buses and family. Today was less touristy and more of actually seeing the local province. Unfortuna
tely Damien still not feeling 100% decided to stay in bed, since the big wedding was going to be the following day. The tour started in the main square of Dalian which has nice views of the castle. The stop here allowed the girls to take some photos of the area, but also be in many photos with random Chinese people who thought they were absolutely beautiful. Next stop was a small village, which still looked like it might have hundreds of years ago. The girls got the opportunity to play dress ups in traditional Chinese costumes and then pose for some more photos.
After lunch, which was some hot pot Chinese soups, there was a visit to the beach and a local fish market which had an amazing vibrancy to it, as well as fresh and live seafood. The tour finished a bit earlier so the girls headed to the shops with Amy’s gorgeous cousins, Amanda and Shin Shin, for a bit of shopping and to get manicures before the big day. After dinner it was off to bed for another reasonably early night.
Monday was the big wedding day, and it definitely was BIG! The day started at 7am when we headed up to Amy’s room. She had already been up for hours doing hair, makeup etc… The photographers were already there doing different shoots and scenes for the wedding video. Everyone was then taken down stairs to the convoy of cars waiting for us (about 13 cars in total). The traffic, as always was chaotic not helped by the cameraman effectively blocking 3 lanes of traffic to allow the convoy some clear road. The cameraman would then speed past the convoy, with the station wagon boot door open and a guy with the camera hanging out the back of the car to film the whole procession.
The convoy then stopped off at Alan’s parent’s home, a gorgeous apartment in Dalian. We were amazed by the artworks and jade sculptures around the house. After some more photos it was back to the cars. This time it was for the traditional wedding drive, around the main square of Dalian and then along Binhai Drive, a section of road along the top of some cliffs, overlooking the sea. This ended at the hotel where the wedding was being held, a 5 star hotel with sea views.
The beautiful bride and groom then walked into the hotel and through the foyer, under a spray of confetti being launched from a number of confetti canons. The wedding was upstairs, where many of the 350 guests were already waiting, although some were not in the main room as it was not big enough. After Amy and Alan had walked down the aisle, came the ceremony and speeches, sadly in all the excitement we got separated from our translator, so we really don’t know what was being said. Amy will have to translate the video for us one day. Lunch was then served and as with most of the meals this week it was incredible, seafood, meat dishes, vegetables, beer, wine and rice wine. After lunch, surprisingly many of the guests left, only about an hour after the bride and groom had arrived, very different to Australian culture. There was then a chance for more photos, mainly of Amy and Alan, but also friends, family and the token whities!
After all of this Amy and Alan were whisked away for still more photos allowing us a chance to rest and digest for a couple of hours back at the hotel. Then, it shouldn’t really be a surprise, but it was, we were taken back to the 5 star restaurant for another banquet and more drinks. At dinner nearly every 5-10 minutes someone would propose a toast and the whole table would do a ‘cheers’, which we found amusing, but is a way of showing respect in Chinese culture. A few hours later we were heading to bed, exhausted, wondering how we were going to do all of this again in 3 days time.
After a sleep in we were picked up Tuesday morning at 11am, by one of Alan’s friends, Dong Dong (Aida), for a day of shopping. Christine and I are obviously a bit spoilt and a bit picky, and didn’t think it was either cheap (compared to Thailand, Bali etc… ) or that good stuff, from what we saw. We spent a lot of the day following Maree around, who was having an absolute spree! We did get a few things however, DVD’s, posters, earrings, wallet and belts. Aida our guide was very nice and the highlight for me was just spending some time with a local.
Dinner was back at the same place as last night (the wedding venue), for another banquet. No, we are not getting sick of wonderful Chinese food! This was actually a really fun evening, a bit more relaxed. Christine has taken to trying to learn basic Chinese words and phrases, while we both had all the aunts and uncles in hysterics, trying to communicate with them. It ended up like a game of charades, with us acting like chickens, ducks, pretending a dragon statue was eating Damien’s finger and using sign language to tell them that Maree ‘eats like a pig’!
After dinner it was back to the hotel to pack away our things as well as all the shopping the three of us did today. Tomorrow we are flying to Zheng Zou, Amy’s home city.
Our first stop on Saturday morning was SeaWorld. Here we hand fed fish to the seals and watched a very famous dolphin and white whale show. This was good, and we realized that Christine has never been to a SeaWorld
, so it was a new experience for her. There was also an arctic enclosure that we walked through, the highlight being the polar bears, however there were so many people that we just had to get out! After a few photos it was time for lunch, we were off to a nearby restaurant for a steamboat. This is where there is a boiling pot of seasoned water in the middle of the table. There is also a buffet set up of raw food, the idea being that you take what you want and cook it in the pot. This includes chicken, beef, fish balls, cabbage, noodles, and in Dalian fresh seafood of course, including live crabs! The rest of the afternoon we spent a bit of time at the Bird Park and then the Zoo. The zoo was ‘open range’ but very different to Australia. There were also shows here, like the ele
phant show, which had elephants doing all sorts of unnatural things like playing soccer, making an elephant pyramid and walking on two legs. This was all to the tune of blaring techno music. They were very well trained, but the whole thing looked a bit cruel. The highlight of the zoo was throwing celery and carrots to the bears (again a bit unnatural to have bears begging for food in a zoo) and seeing people pay money to throw a live chicken into the tiger or lion enclosures. 
The day finished with a visit to a restaurant that is supposed to have some of the best seafood dishes in Dalian, and we weren’t disappointed, it was delicious and the plates were literally piled up in front of us at the table. Another thing that we have found amusing is that after dinner, everyone stands at once to leave the restaurant. It is funny because the three of us are usually the only ones left sitting, as we obviously don’t understand the conversation that takes place organizing everyone to get ready to leave.
Sunday was the second day of sightseeing with the mini buses and family. Today was less touristy and more of actually seeing the local province. Unfortuna
tely Damien still not feeling 100% decided to stay in bed, since the big wedding was going to be the following day. The tour started in the main square of Dalian which has nice views of the castle. The stop here allowed the girls to take some photos of the area, but also be in many photos with random Chinese people who thought they were absolutely beautiful. Next stop was a small village, which still looked like it might have hundreds of years ago. The girls got the opportunity to play dress ups in traditional Chinese costumes and then pose for some more photos.After lunch, which was some hot pot Chinese soups, there was a visit to the beach and a local fish market which had an amazing vibrancy to it, as well as fresh and live seafood. The tour finished a bit earlier so the girls headed to the shops with Amy’s gorgeous cousins, Amanda and Shin Shin, for a bit of shopping and to get manicures before the big day. After dinner it was off to bed for another reasonably early night.
Monday was the big wedding day, and it definitely was BIG! The day started at 7am when we headed up to Amy’s room. She had already been up for hours doing hair, makeup etc… The photographers were already there doing different shoots and scenes for the wedding video. Everyone was then taken down stairs to the convoy of cars waiting for us (about 13 cars in total). The traffic, as always was chaotic not helped by the cameraman effectively blocking 3 lanes of traffic to allow the convoy some clear road. The cameraman would then speed past the convoy, with the station wagon boot door open and a guy with the camera hanging out the back of the car to film the whole procession.
The convoy then stopped off at Alan’s parent’s home, a gorgeous apartment in Dalian. We were amazed by the artworks and jade sculptures around the house. After some more photos it was back to the cars. This time it was for the traditional wedding drive, around the main square of Dalian and then along Binhai Drive, a section of road along the top of some cliffs, overlooking the sea. This ended at the hotel where the wedding was being held, a 5 star hotel with sea views.
The beautiful bride and groom then walked into the hotel and through the foyer, under a spray of confetti being launched from a number of confetti canons. The wedding was upstairs, where many of the 350 guests were already waiting, although some were not in the main room as it was not big enough. After Amy and Alan had walked down the aisle, came the ceremony and speeches, sadly in all the excitement we got separated from our translator, so we really don’t know what was being said. Amy will have to translate the video for us one day. Lunch was then served and as with most of the meals this week it was incredible, seafood, meat dishes, vegetables, beer, wine and rice wine. After lunch, surprisingly many of the guests left, only about an hour after the bride and groom had arrived, very different to Australian culture. There was then a chance for more photos, mainly of Amy and Alan, but also friends, family and the token whities!
After all of this Amy and Alan were whisked away for still more photos allowing us a chance to rest and digest for a couple of hours back at the hotel. Then, it shouldn’t really be a surprise, but it was, we were taken back to the 5 star restaurant for another banquet and more drinks. At dinner nearly every 5-10 minutes someone would propose a toast and the whole table would do a ‘cheers’, which we found amusing, but is a way of showing respect in Chinese culture. A few hours later we were heading to bed, exhausted, wondering how we were going to do all of this again in 3 days time.
After a sleep in we were picked up Tuesday morning at 11am, by one of Alan’s friends, Dong Dong (Aida), for a day of shopping. Christine and I are obviously a bit spoilt and a bit picky, and didn’t think it was either cheap (compared to Thailand, Bali etc… ) or that good stuff, from what we saw. We spent a lot of the day following Maree around, who was having an absolute spree! We did get a few things however, DVD’s, posters, earrings, wallet and belts. Aida our guide was very nice and the highlight for me was just spending some time with a local.
Dinner was back at the same place as last night (the wedding venue), for another banquet. No, we are not getting sick of wonderful Chinese food! This was actually a really fun evening, a bit more relaxed. Christine has taken to trying to learn basic Chinese words and phrases, while we both had all the aunts and uncles in hysterics, trying to communicate with them. It ended up like a game of charades, with us acting like chickens, ducks, pretending a dragon statue was eating Damien’s finger and using sign language to tell them that Maree ‘eats like a pig’!
After dinner it was back to the hotel to pack away our things as well as all the shopping the three of us did today. Tomorrow we are flying to Zheng Zou, Amy’s home city.
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