China Travels: The Land of Many Weddings Edition

Our travels have brought us to Monday morning, October 24.  Bettie and I woke up circa de 6:30 (a.m.... yes, I'm that good) and we ventured downstairs to partake in the breakfast buffet.  It was... interesting.  It was more in the style of a European breakfast, rather than western... which is interesting at best.

Our next appointment factory man picked us up from the hotel at 9 to take us to an area about an hour outside of Shenzen.  We'll call him Goofy.  Mostly because he was really Goofy.  He took us to the "Castfast Amor Hotel" ( I can't make this up).  We were at first unsure why "amor" was in the name of the hotel... the answer would come crashing in later.  We checked into our room and went upstairs to drop our luggage before heading to the factory.  

Waiting for us in our room was this little gem...

Classic.


And this here is the view from our room of the complex...

the view from our room

After a few minutes of running around the hotel room trying to see everything as fast as I could (and starting my toiletries collection... I brought home 17 toothbrushes!) we went back downstairs to meet Goofy and head off to the factory.  At this factory we saw some products that she was already having made there along with some new samples.  We walked around and saw all the different types of machines used to make all sorts of metal and rubber thingys.  Cool. We were only there a little while when the Goof-dog suggested lunch and we headed back to the Castfast hotel for a nice buffet.

This buffet was pretty "western friendly" if you will.  There was your noodle..your rice... and of course some dumplings.  All of these things are, of course, considered "poor food"  ... but I still love 'em!

After lunch we went to visit another factory... business business business....

Now the good stuff!!  Goofy took us back to our hotels because Bettie and I wanted to walk around the Japanese garden that was in the back while it was still daytime so we could take pictures... pretty self explanatory...

the coolest koi pond circa de... ever !

my yellow fish friend

ah the sun...with its beautiful smoggy glow !

oh and this sign.

They were literally putting this sign in the ground as we were walking up.  My aunt described it as "a silhouette that should be on the back of an 18-wheeler mud flap."


While we were walking around the garden, Goofy kept asking us if we wanted to go up to the top of the hill.  We could see a "church" and some flower beds that he said we could go look at.  Bettie and kept telling him we were too tired and lazy.  But the Goofster wouldn't have this.  He just kept asking and asking and then finally told us that a hotel car was going to pick us up and give us a tour.   Some people just don't listen!  But turns out that this time, its us who should have been listening !

So this little guy pulls up to take us!

Hey little friend!

 So we hopped on the green golf cart and were off!
First we saw this giant castle they are builiding... aka the Castfast Amor tourist center....hmmm curious it seemed...

 then there was a giant CROSS hanging in the sky... extra curious considering we were in CHINA... with the COMMUNISTS...

 Then we reached the top of a hill to and stopped for a while.  There was a really cool view of the city... at least of what you can see of it through the pollution

 And the olympic characters!!! Goofy went through and read all their names to me.

I love them.

  And there was, of course, and giant three story bird cage full of birds (duh) and the bottom floor... and SNAKES on the top. hissssss....

 and then he told us this place is used for a play every sunday night...

so we were kind of getting the feeling that this place was a little out of the ordinary as far as Chinese hotels go, and that it catered more to tourist (namely Chinese tourists... this wasn't exactly a city most westerners would happen upon)

But there was one thing that we still hadn't figured out... on the drive up the hill we kept passing signs like these...

They say "successfulland.com" and all had a bride a groom on them in some super dramatic pose. 

Then we noticed that we were SURROUNDED by brides... quite literally EVERYWHERE!

 We were told that 300 couples get married here PER DAY! And take their photos at all these little locations set up everywhere.  There were fake churches, a fake village, meadows of flowers, a WINDMILL and of course, outdoor grand piano.

The couples are almost all wearing rented gowns and suits and they come to a place like the CASTFAST AMOR (the amor part clicked somewhere in here) to take their wedding photos!!!  Can you imagine 300 couples EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK!! We were there on a Monday and this is what we saw...

the inside of the church had a beach scene at the front, then snowflakes the sides....duh

this is a train on tracks if you cant tell

It was like the Disneyworld of Chinese weddings!  I was running around with the BIGGEST smile.  I mean, lets talk about wonder and awe.  This was truly something I had never even imagined existed before.  We walked around the happy couple's for about 45 minutes, all while traveling the world! We saw them take pictures in Holland (the windmill), at the beach (er..church), Angel Love Italian Cafe (its the yellow building), a western saloon, the meadows, a house that looked strangely out of Pleastantville, Suburbia and so much more.  This began my dream to make a documentary about Chinese wedding culture.

Then, sadly it was getting dark- and we hadn't eaten in at least 3 hours, so we left the festivities and went to dinner at the hotel.  The restaurant in the hotel overlooked the pool (which had GLASS sides) and over to the other side of the hotel complex.  Halfway through our meal we noticed a lot of Brides and Grooms walking together.... then more and more .... and think we figured out that they were all processing as part of a wedding video that they would get as part of their little photo package.  it seriously went on for about 15 minutes.  I'm still in shock.  There are 2 billion people in China. 

Bettie had told Goofy that we wanted a foot massage that night (they are super cheap and EVERYWHERE ) so he said he would take us somewhere good. So we got in the van and drove maybe a block to a giant strip center COVERED in neon lights.  It definitely did not look like a classy joint.  When we walked in we were suddenly transformed into another world. Everything was covered in marble.  Every person who worked there had on uniforms. IT WAS AMAZING.  Goofy told the nice people that we wanted a foot massage. To We also had the option of taking a shower... we opted out.  ?  So a gorgeous lady led the three of use up some stairs, down a hallway, down some stairs to a hallway with no lights... (at this point I was pretty sure we were going to die) then through a landing, and all of a sudden there was an indoor, underground water park glassed in the center of the building.  There was a giant pool, water slides... the works. Adjacent to the water park was the foot massage section.  There were three rows of about 35 recliner chairs, each with it own adjustable flat screen tv. Duh. 

The ladies brought over a tub of warm water for us to soak our feet in, along with cantaloupe and tomato salad (aka a plate of baby tomatoes).  She told me to turn around and sit on the foot rest with my feet in the tub and she would give me a should massage while they soaked.  So then I had the most amazing shoulder massage to ever exist. Then I sat back in the chair and she gave me a scalp massage that changed my life.  Then an arm massage.  THEN she got to my sleepy little feets .  

Heavenly. 

There is a video of this that I need to get from my aunt.  It'll help set the scene. 

Anyway.  Our simple little foot massage that we wanted turned out to be an hour and a half full body massage of wonder and joy!  Goofy knew what he was talking about. 

So then, when I thought the day couldn't get ANY better... we walked out to witness this....

and for our lost in translation...