 A WEDDING IN CHINA! On June 26th, 2010, Murray James Morrison and Liu Liu are getting married in China. We would love it if you came. SO WHAT IS THIS? There are logistical challenges (it turns out) to holding a wedding in China. What you're reading is a companion piece to a wedding invitation that has not yet been sent. The invitation is coming, but we wanted to get you information right away. This web page was made to get you that information. First off. If you have questions—and undoubtedly you will—please don't hesitate to contact me. You can always reach me by email at murrayjames@murrayjames.net. My phone number in Canada is 780-566-2103; in China, 13709063297. I am leaving Canada for China in late March. After that time please do not use Facebook for wedding-related questions. Facebook is blocked in China. As the date of the wedding approaches, this page will be updated with useful information, which I'll post at the top and in red. Aside from this web page, I will be sending information out over email. Please add my email address to your address book. If you are interested in coming to the wedding but you haven't let me know, let me know. It's not too late. We'd love to have you. RUNDOWN BY BULLET POINT
HOTELS The wedding will be held at the Jiayuan International Hotel. This is a 5-star hotel about 30 minutes from downtown Chengdu [website]. On the morning of the wedding we will arrange a bus for guests to travel together. The address:
Jiayuan International Hotel
We encourage guests of the wedding to stay at one of the following two hotels: The Crowne Plaza Hotel, or the more modestly priced Sichuan Hotel. These hotels were chosen for their excellent location (the heart of downtown Chengdu) and proximity (they're right next to each other). We have arranged for special rates for our wedding guests. Let us know if you are interested; we will help you make your reservation.
181 Jichang Road Ph.#: 028-829366666 家园国际酒店 四川成都双流区机场路181号 电话号码： 028-829366666 View Larger Map
Crowne Plaza Hotel [website]
Rooms: 750 RMB ($120 US)/night 31 Zongfu Street Ph.#: 028-86786666 总府皇冠假日酒店 价格： 750元 四川成都总府街31号 电话号码： 028-86786666 Sichuan Hotel Rooms: 260 RMB ($40 US)/night 31 Zongfu Street Ph.#: 028-86755555 四川宾馆 价格： 260元 四川成都总府街31号 电话号码： 028-86755555 View Larger Map VISA You will need a tourist visa to come to China. The visa is not difficult to obtain. To apply, you will need a passport with at least a year and one blank page remaining. You should apply for your visa one to two months before you travel. It will cost between $100 and $250, depending on the length of your visa, whether it is single- or dual-entry, and the company you use. There are companies in Canada, the United States, and Europe that can process your application for you. These companies have specific requirements; check with them directly to find out what they are. Here are two companies I've used and can recommend. In Canada: Access China Tours. | FAQ | pricing and application In the U.S.: VisaRite. | FAQ | pricing and application Please note: A tourist visa is valid for travel within mainland China only. If you plan on visiting Hong Kong, Macao, or Taiwan and then reentering mainland China, you will need a dual-entry visa. TRAVEL In 2009, I flew Edmonton-Chengdu round-trip for $1150 CAD. In 2008, I flew round-trip twice—New York-Shanghai and New York-Chengdu. Each trip was around $1250 USD. Flights range slighter higher, on average. But seat sales to major destinations like Beijing and Shanghai are not uncommon. If you cannot find good rates online, consider using a Chinese travel agent. Many Chinese agencies have offices in cities like New York, Toronto, Vancouver, and San Francisco. Their rates are often better than what you find online. This page has a list of Chinese travel agents in the US [link]. Here is a related list of user-submitted flights, rates, and agents [link]. In Canada, I've had a positive experience with Tian Bao Travel (in Burnaby, BC; phone#604-433-6133). Please note that not all of these agencies have employees who speak English. If you are planning additional travel within China, consider booking these flights separate from your main itinerary. Liu Liu and I are friends with travel agents in Chengdu. We can help you find good rates on domestic flights and lodging. Keep in mind that your port of entry and exit do not need to be the same. You could fly into Beijing, attend the wedding in Chengdu, and leave from Shanghai if you wanted to. The time zone in China is UTC +8. When daylight saving time begins on March 14, China (the whole country) will be 12 hours ahead of New York City. A flight to China is over twelve hours. Bring a good book. WHAT A CHINESE WEDDING IS LIKE  A Chinese wedding (not mine). A modern Chinese wedding is like modern Chinese culture in miniature. It's exciting. It's noisy. It's filled with people. And food is always served. For family and close friends, a typical Chinese wedding lasts all day. It starts late morning with a ceremony. There is lunch. Then, a change of locale, where things slow down in the afternoon. In the evening the fun picks up again. There is drinking, eating, and laughter. It goes on all night. Western-style weddings have become popular with Chinese youth. Other couples still prefer a traditional wedding, which features traditional Chinese attire and much more of the color red (like in the picture above). Our wedding will be a mixture of the two. Our wedding begins with music. Then the procession: Liu Liu is wearing a white wedding dress; me, a black suit. A Chinese pastor is present to officiate the wedding. Liu Liu and I recite our traditional Christian vows. We kiss. We are married. There is more music, a speech from my father, a speech from Liu's father, a speech from me. Then we eat. FUN FACT: As my best man, and according to Chinese custom, my brother Max will be handing out cigarettes to male guests as they arrive. After lunch and much toasting, guests begin to leave. Close family and friends will stay. We retire to a tea house in the afternoon to relax and play Mahjong. We will need our rest. At night we go out again. Liu Liu changes out of her wedding gown and into a tight red dress. There is food, music, and improbable amounts of drinking. This will be a big wedding. We estimate 400 guests on the bride's side, and 40 on mine. There will be a professional translator (plus bilingual friends) at the wedding; everything said will be understood by all parties. Dress is formal, but not extravagant. Chengdu gets hot in the summertime. FOOD AND DRINK Chinese food is delicious. It is different—and better—than the Chinese food you're used to. Foods associated with an alternative lifestyle in the U.S. (tofu, green vegetables) are mainstream in China, and among the tastiest dishes around. Even the meat may surprise you. Conch? Ox tongue? I guarantee: they look and taste way better than they sound. 
Liu Liu's province, Sichuan, is home to one of the richest culinary traditions in China. If it sounds familiar, that's because it is: what we call Szechuan cuisine is an Americanized version of Sichuanese food. Sichuanese food is light, spicy, and quite flavorful. At most Chinese dinners there will be a variety of dishes to choose from. They are placed in the center of the table and shared family-style. If you cannot eat spicy food, let me know in advance. We'll make provisions for you at the wedding. If you are vegetarian, this too is not a problem. (There are numerous Chinese vegetable dishes and they're all good.) Vegan is harder, but possible. If you have dietary restrictions or severe food allergies—well, this can get dicey. Email me. Chinese rice wine, or 白酒 (baijiu), is a hard, unmerciful drink. Get ready. The week before my wedding, whenever Liu Liu's family is around, there is a good chance you'll be offered to drink this. Cups are small in size (less than 1 oz.) but potent. Baijiu is strong—up to 50%-70% alcohol. It will be the main thing we drink at the wedding. The Chinese beer scene is just ok. Of the local beers, Tsingtao and Harbin are my favorites. My advice: stay away from the local brands. Chinese beer is rarely stored cold, so you might want to check that before you order. Most restaurants carry Budweiser; expat hangs carry Guinness, Kilkenny, and other brands too. In China, drinking is a social endeavor. Women are not expected to drink, but men will be. Do not be offended if someone offers you alcohol. Take it as a compliment. If a Chinese person likes you, he will goad you into drinking more and more. Prepare to be toasted and to toast with others. CULTURAL HODGEPODGE AND PROTIPS Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province. It has a population of 11 million, with 2 million in the urban core alone. Here is a picture I took there in 2007: 
It's hard to appreciate how many people live in China until you see it for yourself. China's cities are bustling; you'll see pedestrians and people on mopeds everywhere. Traffic in Chengdu is like a stirred up beehive, but with less apparent order. As for the look of the city, streets are wide, buildings are grand, and doors are large. Chinese architecture is psychologically impressive. Whether traditional or modern, when it's at its best, it's a humbling thing. And then there's the touristy stuff. There's shopping, of course, and there's that statue of Mao Tse-tung [picture]. There's that dam from 250 BC [wikipedia] and an archeological museum with artifacts from 1000 BC [website]. Women love Chengdu's world-famous panda zoo [website]. And then there's the clubs at night, where I (and hopefully some of you) will be playing. To coordinate these events, we are renting a small bus and tour guide on certain days. The cost of the bus is 1000 RMB ($150 US)/day. A tour guide is 350 RMB ($50 US)/day. If just fifteen people are interested, that's less than $15/person for a day's worth of activities. Others may want to go off exploring by themselves; that's also fine. The trickiest thing about China, by far, is the language. China is not an English-speaking country. In Chengdu, most people do not speak English well enough to give directions. Cab drivers do not speak or read English. Most restaurants have menus in Mandarin only. This communication problem goes both ways. While most of Europe has cultural and linguistic proximity to English, China does not. So be prepared. You'll find that Mandarin is unintelligible to the Western ear. And to the Western eye it looks like gibberish: 美国人看不懂。
Here are some possible solutions: (1) Get a cellphone. SIM cards in China are cheap and easy to use. They can be purchased at most convenience stores and are ready to use in minutes. You'll need an unlocked GSM tri-band phone and about $30. More information here [link]. (2) Print your address in advance. If you know where you are going, print out the address in Chinese, or get your hotel staff to write it down for you. Then you can ask cab drivers and people on the street for help. You'll also want a copy of your hotel address, which I provided in Mandarin above. (3) Use a tour guide. For those of you who are interested in seeing Chengdu together, we've arranged for transportation and a bilingual tour guide. He will show you the city and answer all your questions. (4) Hang out with us. While I will be busy with wedding stuff, I'm also keeping huge swaths of time free for my guests. Most of my Chinese friends speak English and I can speak Chinese. Hang out with us. I'm learning Chinese so you don't have to. Traveling in China is safe. People are friendly and crime is low. Incidents can occur, though. For official information about travel in China, including embassy information and travel warnings, see relevant pages at the U.S. Department of State [link] and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada [link]. With this page I've tried to give you as much information as possible. Life in China is very different from life in the West. I love China, so I've focused on the positive side. But if you're coming to my wedding there are three more things you should know:
IN CONCLUSION
Liu Liu and I are getting married.
The wedding is in China. Join us. After three and a half years together, Liu Liu and I are getting married. This is a time for celebration. We hope that you can celebrate with us. We hope furthermore that it will be an adventure for you. In college I read a book by German sociologist Max Weber. I don't remember which book it was (maybe "The Sociology of Religion") but at one point Weber referred to a thing as "positively Chinese." What he meant by that (using insensitive language by today's standards) was that the thing was eerily familiar, yet different. Its true meaning was elusive, and to be understood correctly it had to be interpreted in categories foreign to the Western mind. China, too, is "positively Chinese." Precisely because it is different, it is exciting. It is foreign in the truest sense of word. Therefore it requires a change in perspective to understand correctly. Some would see this as a turnoff. For me and many others, it is an adventure. I am getting married there soon. This is what I'm asking you to share and be a part of. Chengdu: June 26th, 2010. I can't wait. We'll see you there. 
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