From Huangshan (Yellow Mountain, hiking), we moved on to Kunshan. This is a relatively minor city west of Shanghai, but it’s where our friend Hua was born and raised. This is also where Hua and Christine‘s Chinese wedding took place, the main reason for our trip.

Kunshan is a nice city that reminded me of Hangzhou in its size. Big, but not huge or imposing like Shanghai. More green spaces, better organized. Nice infrastructure.

It was great to meet Hua’s family and hang out with them. We also stayed at the Swissotel Kunshan which was just excellent. Easily our best hotel of the trip, to the point where some people skipped some day trips to just hang out and enjoy the hotel.

After arriving in Kunshan, we drove to Suzhou to shop for traditional Chinese dresses, or qipao. This was an amusing experience. Alli bought a nice red one, and she’s already worn it once since.

The next day was the wedding itself. It is mostly a large, fancy dinner, but there is also a small ceremony involving a variety of bows. I don’t pretend to understand it or the history behind it, but it was fun to observe. The food was delicious, of course, as was most of our food in China.

The day after the wedding, we left Kunshan, driving to the Shanghai airport for a domestic flight to Xi’an.