KAIPING is a city located in the province of Guangdong. Initially, I thought Kaiping was a village and that we would have to endure hardships here, but I guess that was not the case.
Even though we just arrived the day before, the next day we would have to attend a wedding at my grandma's village. The "YU" village in Kaiping. A village wedding, how cool is that - you don't get many chances to attend one. Early that morning our aunt brought us to do some shopping and we took the bus which cost like 3RMB per person per way. We were shopping along the street boutiques. I thought the prices would be extremely cheap, but it wasn't. I only got 1 tank for 25 RMB. I wore it for the wedding, and I never wore it again. The boss/sales lady always follow you around the shop and tells you this looks great on you, do you want to buy it. It's quite annoying and you definitely feel pressured to buy the thing you are looking at. I got nauseous later on, the heat was just getting to me.
Once we got back home, somebody came to pick us up and drop us at the "YU" village. My grandma is the last remaining sibling of the "YU" family. I forgot, I believe she has 9 siblings and she is the youngest and also the ONLY ONE CURRENTLY LIVING. So almost everybody at the village's wedding was her sibling's children's, great grand children and great great grand children. It was crazy. Think about the amount red envelopes that need to be given to them, 8 siblings and their families and their extended families and also my grandma's side of the family too. She had to give away couple of thousands of Canadian dollars in red envelopes. She says her responsibility as the eldest of the village. My mother told my grandmother, if you are going to be cheap, best not to give anything at all; if you give than it must be at least 100RMB each. When somebody gave me a red envelope it was 20RMB, regardless, I am still thankful.
This how traditional Chinese weddings looks like. They usually hang banners on the doors of family members. In this case, there are red congratulatory banners hanged outside of every family members' door. We are distinct relatives? of the groom's family - I think I would be considered his great aunt? lol. Grandma's brother's son's son. Not sure if that is accurate or not.
It begins with the tea pouring ceremony. They pour tea for the elders and in return they get a red envelope. My grandma stuffed that red envelope very well.
Firecrackers lighted at each house's of family members.
This is the entrance of the house my grandmother was born and lived in for a while. Awhile meaning that she lived there for a couple of years before living somewhere else. She was supposed to be given away because the family could not afford to provide for another person, but her eldest brother who was like 20 years older took her in and brought her into his family. He was a doctor and was able to pave a future for her to become a nurse, though his wife was not too "nice" to her. Here's some more pictures of the house.
After you enter through the door.
The top is actually the sleeping quarters. It seems very dangerous to sleep there especially if you have kids.
We had to lit the incense here to pay our respect to the dead.
Broken door sign.
I believe we lit couple of incense in various areas of the house, perhaps five. I'm not sure why though.
This is how the village looks like. There are some newer buildings beside it.
Wooden chairs that the village people brought for us to sit on. We had to wait for the banquet. I didn't know what to do so I went exploring.
Baby chicks that they are raising. So CUTE!
And these are like teenager chickens. Too big to be kept in a box, but not big enough to be kept with the adults.
Two eggs given to me by one of the villagers. OH, SO HAPPY! She went into the shed and grabbed two newly laid eggs, it was still so warm. It gave me fuzzy feelings, but to think that "SOMEBODY" took my eggs and stuck it in the fridge without me knowing. This reminds me of the time during the tour, we have a boiled egg and we gave it to the kids in the tour telling them that there's a chicken inside so you have to keep it warm. LOL. They believed it and kept the egg in the hands to keep it warm. It was quite mean, but hopefully their parents told them that it was a boiled egg. The next day outside our hotel room, we found garbage. Strange coincidence.
Stumbled upon a talented women in the village cross-stitching. How amazing. She said she had been working on this piece for a couple of years already. She only does it on her free time since she has another job.
A CRAZY looking beetle. It's pretty, but creepy. Never in my life had I saw one of these in the flesh.
There really wasn't anything to do at the village, so I just walked around the reception area and watch them cook and set-up the tables. They were cooking out in the open for hours! They had to bring all the ingredients from the restaurant to prepare on site. I mean, once I got there, they were already here and they were still cooking when we were eating, so dishes were still coming out.
Look at the might tall steamer pot.
All these food were prepared without gloves. Who knows what they've touched while preparing this. Someone definitely touched a dog in the village and I saw flies on top of many of the plates too. Anyways, the food were prepared in an unsanitary conditions, but nobody seemed to care.
The entrance for the banquet. 
I am not sure what this is. I think it might be firecrackers.
A sign stating the relationship my grandma have with them, which is the oldest living sibling of their parent's parent or something. This is what everybody at the village calls her.
Some seriously bitter and strong alcohol.
The bride's bouquet.
People arriving and getting seated.
Bride taking a selfie with her mates. Unlike tradition North American weddings, no body gave a speech on how the couple met...or showed pictures....
And lastly, the dinner served. Barely any meat. We had to go out and by some bottled water since there were only alcohol, apple vinegar juice and some kind of odd tasting milk. We gave everything away to another table except of the alcohol.
It was a bit of a tiring day, but a wonderful experience. A once in a lifetime experience.
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