Unlike louche Westerners, a Chinese groom has to go and get his bride. He goes with some mates to her parents place, and ritually abducts her. There is a tea ceremony at her parents place (after the relatives try and stop the groom and his mates from getting in - bribes are essential), where the bride and groom feed sweets to her parents. Then he takes her to his parents' place, and she is welcomed into the new home with another tea ceremony. That's pretty much it for the formalities; no priests or anything like that. After the bride has been welcomed into the new family, everyone gets together for a banquet, where there are lots of speeches, toasts (the job of the best man is to be a second for the groom as the toasts wear on, so the groom stands a reasonable chance of walking out of the reception) and associated stuff.

These photos show Nick and his heavies (well, those who could be roused after a big night the night before) going to ritually abduct Joan. We did things a little differently. Nowadays, most people travel in cars (shows you are rich), but we decided to go the traditional pallaquin and, since the hotel where Nick's parents were staying and the reception was being held was near Joan's parents house, do a parade down the street. Since we were being all traditional, both of us dressed in traditional costume for this bit of the day. It's probably not often that people see a Westerner walking down the street dressed in a red imperial costume, so we got a few looks on the way to Joan's place.

Photo one shows Nick, Ben and Richard (mate and hired heavy for the morning), having a Beatles moment on the crosswalk near Joan's place.

Photo Two shows the same three with the pallaquin bearers. Joan hadn't told them they were being hired by a Westerner, and boy were they a little surprised when we showed up! Fortunately, one of Joan's friends was translating (the famous Dr Lu, who drank all of Nicks friends under the table at the reception, and then went out to dinner!).

Naturally, Joan kept her groom waiting. To pass the time, the pallaquin bearers struck up a tune, and the strange Westerners danced a jig or two for the gathering crowds who came out of the nearby apartments to see what was going on.

The final picture shows the ritual break-in, as Joan's family tries to stop us coming in to abduct her. Nick thought that having a Federal Police Officer as a heavy might help here, but all the badge-flashing and attempts to arrest people (a little out of his jurisdiction) did little good. In the end it was good old shouting ("Kaimen" - open the door!), shoving and the greasing of palms which got us in the door.