A Chinese wedding traditions in Dalian

Last Sunday, I was lucky to be invited to a traditional Chinese wedding in Dalian. It's my first experience here and it was quite a day of enjoyment. The groom is a cousin of a colleague. Choosing the date for the wedding appears to be very important and the couple is very picky. The date should be a lucky one and this wedding was on a Sunday, April 26th. I am told that there will be a lot of weddings in May because there are many lucky dates.

The day started out with a convoy of many Mercedes Benz led by the groom family heading to the home of the family of the bride. The whole wedding parties were then traveling to the SwissHotel for the wedding ceremony. In this particular wedding, the convoy was led by a Rolls Royce owned by a family friend. I think the families gave the couple a new bed with complete sets of sheets, pillows with cases and covers. The tradition is to have a young boy (less than 2-3 yrs old) to jump up and down this bed to give luck to the newly wed. I think this is to give hope for the couple to produce an heir soon. Red is the lucky color here. I saw the bride wearing red shoes and red "undergarment" and panty hoses. I would bet my salary that the groom wore a red underwear too!

I was the only foreigner in this wedding and the families were extremely friendly to me. I was able to take several pictures with the bride who is a beauty. She wore a white wedding dress (looked exactly like the American wedding dress); then during the banquet, she changed it into a pretty chinese dress and the couple served the guests with drinks, cigarettes and candy. And finally, she changed into a pretty red dress, the traditional chinese wedding dress before the end of the banquet. I was able to take some pictures with the bride this day. The groom must be the luckiest guy on earth!

It must have been a lucky day for me too!!!

An outing at Mt. Xiao Hei Shan and the Dalian botanical garden

Today, there was an IBM outing to visit the Dalian indoor botanical garden. There were all kinds of beautiful orchards with different colors. Also, there were several type of cactus plants. We were served with a special local lunch menu. All of the dishes were prepared with organic vegetables such as eggplants, tomatos, tofu, etc.



























We went on to climb Mt Xiao Hei Shan (The Small Black Mountain) after lunch. At the bottom of this mountain was an old local residence and it is now a museum displaying how the locals made tofus, noodles and mill work.


The Xiao Hei Shan is not even near as tall as the Da Hei Shan that I climbed two weeks ago. But today weather was wet and rainy and the track to the top was muddy. Along the way, the wind was getting gusty and stronger as we got near the summit. This combined with the cold temperature has made it really bitterly cold and was difficult to climb. It took us about two and an half hours to go up to the summit and came back down.




















































We stopped by the local farmers to pick fresh strawberries. The deal was to eat as much as I wanted at the farm at no charge. I bought half of a kilogram of strawberries to eat later this weekend. Oh, wondering why I kissed the goat? a couple of IBMers placed a bet with me if I would kiss the goat for 50 RMB. I guess they did not know me well!

Golden Pebble Beach and LvShun Museum

This week, it's snowing in Dalian. They said it's rare but it happened here in Dalian on April 15th. This weekend, it was cold and rainy. An IBM colleague took me to the Golden Pebble Beach which is located in the Dalian New Development Zone. We crossed the Golden Bay Bridge to get to the beach. It is a good place to have BBQ and beach volleyball in the summer. Not today! Nearby is a huge Chinese Martial Arts School.

We did not stay long at the beach today because
of the cold weather!


We headed to the city of LvShun and visited the LvShun Relic Prison Museum. This is an exclusive area and foreigners are not allowed to enter. I was lucky to be able to admit. This prison was built during the Japanese occupation of this area. Some of the most gruesome tactics employed by the Japanese during the 30's and 40's including the torture chambers, the execution rooms, etc. This has to be one of the saddest chapters of the people of China.

More pictures at the Da Hei Shan

At the summit of the Da Hei Shan (The Big Black Mountain)

It's a beautiful day here in Dalian. A group of 15 of us from IBM decided to take a hiking trip to Da Hei Shan (The Big Black Mountain) which is located about 30 Km north of Dalian. It is nearby the Dalian New Development Zone where many major international companies are establishing their manufacturing facilities. The major Dalian University in this New Development Zone is at the feet of the mountain. It took us over 3 hours to hike to the top of this mountain of about 700m (~2000 ft) elevation. There were so much natural rocks along the way. We overcame the many difficult trecherous terrains. At the top of the mountain is the headquarter of the military general who directed the many battles very long time ago. They called it "The city of the big black mountain". I found some very neat temples along the way down from the top of the mountain. Overall, it's an enjoyable expedition with the group. We all made it to the top and back safely.