China Top 10 - #3 and #4

3. The Massage

Bing's family hosted a traditional Chinese dinner near our hotel the first night in Xian. Afterwards, we all went to get massages. There were about 15 of us, and we were split up into different rooms with 4 or 5 to a room. The massage lasted 2 hours, and cost 100 RMB or around $15 USD. Can you say cheap and amazingly relaxing??

It was not like a typical American massage - they massaged my eyeballs, stuck 2 fingers in my ears and stretched my head up, massaged my stomach, cracked my legs like a whip. One of Bing's friends, Sally, was in the same room and she served as our translator. Upon her lead, I decided it would be a good idea to partake in Chinese massage cupping therapy. My masseuse took 12 glasses, lit a ball of fire, put the fire into the glasses briefly, then suctioned the cups to my back. Supposedly this helps elevate pain, removes toxins and allows the body to feel free and rested. The glasses act as a vacuum and suck the extra heat thereby improving blood circulation. It is important to note that this type of therapy also leaves huge, round hickeys on your back that remain there for days:

I brought a halter top dress with no back for the wedding, which clearly was not an option. As a solution, I had a traditional silk Chinese dress custom made just for me in one day. The spots on my upper arms stuck out like 1/2 circles under the sleeves of my dress, which still was much better in my mind than revealing my spotted back.

The spa ladies like the color of my hair, so they also steamed my legs and used hot rocks as part of my treatment. Sally tells me they asked if I was a belly dancer because my legs were soft. Unable to find the correlation between the 2, I responded no with laughter. It took a day later for me to realize that I misunderstood Sally's accent and she meant BALLET dancer, not BELLY. Nice...

4. The Wedding

Scott and Bing's wedding was held in the Xian Room of the Shangri-La Hotel. The morning of, the guys went to her parents' apartment to "woo" Bing, as part of traditional Chinese custom. When they got there, they set off fireworks in the driveway to let everyone know they'd arrived. They had to bribe the family with gifts and get past 3 doorways to get inside. Scott gave little envelopes of money, etc. to convince them to let him in. Once inside the apartment, they had to find Bing. After finding Bing, they had to find her shoes. ??? After everything was "found," they had tea with Bing's parents, symbolizing that Scott could now officially call them Mom and Dad. Then they went to Scott's parents' hotel for tea, symbolizing that Bing could now officially call them Mom and Dad.

The actual wedding started later in the day with drinks and a violinist in the reception area. Bing wore 3 different dresses throughout the evening - one during the pre-wedding mingling, one during the ceremony, and one at the reception - all equally beautiful. Obviously I understood none of the wedding as it was all in Chinese:

After the ceremony, Scott and his best men - Matt and Jordan - with Bing and her bridal party had to visit each table and take shots with every one. If they took actual shots they'd likely die, so many of them were fake shots with water only. The liquor of choice was Mao Tai, or some form thereof, and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever had. It was a rice liquor that burned like crazy going down and was not flavorful or enjoyable at all whatsoever. The shots kept coming like nothing I've ever seen. As the night went on people were shooting wine, beer, Hennessy, Vodka. Seriously, there was so much alcohol that this guy passed out in his chair.

Chinese people do not stick around for weddings, so after dinner the place literally cleared out with the exception of the younger crowd and some of Bing's family members. For those at my wedding, you may remember "the guys" singing Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi and You've Lost that Lovin' Feeling. It was my favorite part of the entire reception:


Although there were much fewer than typical, they followed through with the tradition and sang to Bing. K had an amazing air guitar solo, and Bing's family loved the group singing so much that they performed not once but 3 times.