Bellies filled, for the first of many times that day, it's time to leave. First though, it's time for the bride to take her belongings; a large tin bowl, some peanuts, some gui yuen (Joan says Nick can't call them lychees, even though they're from the same family, some chestnuts and dates, all wrapped up in a red handkerchief (well, you might get hungry!). The first photo shows Joan's parents handing over the bowl, and some advice to go with it. From memory, they said "Nick, if you mistreat our daughter in any way, we'll send the People's Republican Army around to teach you what for". (note - Nick already defeated the People's Republican Army at Beijing railway station when they tried to push in line to buy tickets, so this threat rang a little hollow).

The next couple of photos show Joan and Nick leaving the house, and the gathering crowd. Apparently, there are not too many mixed-race weddings in that apartment block, certainly not with lion dances, a foreigner dressed like a clown and a pallaquin procession. So they came out to look, about 100 of them. Much to Joan's Mother's delight, one of the oldest ladies in the apartment block said it was the best wedding she'd seen in decades. The little girl in the orange top was a particular star performer. We presumed she was someone's daughter, one of the invitees. She was anything but; she just saw the wedding happening and decided to take part. She threw rose petals, helped Joan get dressed, carried her train down the aisle when we entered the reception hall, and then promptly asked Joan's Mum if she could sit at the family table and have some banquet. It was only afterwards that we discovered she was simply a blow-in. Doubtless she will run China some day. Look for the distinctive orange shirt in later photos.

On the right of the same photo is Joan's nephew, Xiao Xiao who (given his past history as centre of photographic attention) should probably feature more here. The girl in red behind him is Joan's best fried and bridesmaid, Zhang CuiAr. She's also in the first photo.

The last photo shows part of the lion dance. It's a bit difficult to give it proper credit in a photo, but hopefully we will have some video up soon. There were four guys in the lion suits, dancing about the place (and doing something that looked suspiciously like rutting at one stage), who were nominally under the control of a small guy whose main job seemed to be doing backflips, lots and lots of backflips. From here, it was onto the pallaquin, something we will write about tomorrow!