Traintrip to Zhangjiajie.

We travelled to the Guangzhou Railway Station (the old one) two hours in advance. After all it's the golden week! There are over 700 MILLION Chinese travelling on this week. Two hours were more than enough. We didn't know where to go from the waiting area, and there was people sitting for several lines, so we asked for guidance from a Chinese bloke who understood a little bit of English.

He was travelling with his family to Shimen, Changde, Hunan. He guided us to our compartment. The hard sleepers looked very nice and we settled in. The upper bed wasn't so bad after all, although everybody scared us about it. The air conditioning was a bit rough and caused a minor flu. Teemu and Jussi, Laura's father, sat on the little seats in the corridor to relax for a minute and watch the train depart. They wondered how to spend time during the trip, after all it is a long 14 hours. Luckily the lady with the food trolley walked past, and on the top of the fruits and drinks laid a perfect package of poker cards. What a fortunate surprise. Teemu and Jussi thought that what should we play and should we find some local friends to play with us, and there was it. We went to see the guy who helped us, but due to our language barriers we couldn't start a game.

A long cigarette break took its place and the result was something more than just a poker game, it was a straight flush. Our Chinese friend, mr. Long, was going to a wedding, a wedding of his own. That's why the whole family had big gift boxes with them. They noticed the DSLR camera in Teemu's hands and there began a conversation about their wedding and how we could come with them as wedding photographers. The groom really wanted us to crash their wedding, and after some serious consideration so we did. We changed our plans, the groom called to our hotel in Dehang that we're not able to come but they can keep the money we paid. The groom also booked a hotel for us and for few other wedding guests from their home village.

The Fun it was! Suddenly we were honored guests and sat with the family elderly like the parents of the wedding couple. We truly witnessed the gene§rous hospitality of Chinese. The taste of real Hunanese cuisine was so marvelous and hot, accompanied with the finest Chinese rice wine. In the first evening the village locals were on the guest list, and after the dinner some courtesy gifts were traded. The second day the wedding ceremony took place: there were many similarities compared to western traditions, but also differences. The bride wore a white dress during the ceremony and right after she changed into a traditional Chinese red wedding dress. The trip was a very nice kurkistus in the deeper, more traditional Chinese culture: It was awesome to see how the wedding party treaded others, how the young people helped the elderly, how the weddings were generally arranged etc.

Before leaving to Zhangjiajie, we were invited into a next wedding! We enjoyed the wedding and the cousin of the groom drove us to the train station. Be sure to check the pictures!