The Bride-Counting Game

There must be a bride factory someplace in Suzhou.  On the week-ends, it seems that the JinJi Lake shoreline is crawling with them.  There must be a groom factory too, since there seems to be an equal number of them.

I'm told that it is "the thing" for couples to go to scenic outdoor spots to have their wedding pictures made.  And JinJi Lake is about as scenic as it gets in the Suzhou Industrial Park.  This is the reason that you can see couple after couple after couple traipsing around with the family and friends.  All of them are followed by a team of professional photographers....with still cameras and movie cameras and lighting equipment.   More accurately, the photographers are doing the leading and not the following - staging each pose and choreographing the movements as if they were planning to submit to next year's Cannes festival.

In the past few weeks I've invented a game....called the Bride-Counting game.  It's played like this.

1. The game can be played on any day, but it is best played on a Saturday or Sunday in afternoon.  
2. You start at the North-West corner of the lake. (which, conveniently, is where our apartment happens to be.)
3. From that point, you walk along the shore towards the South-West corner no farther than the start of Li Gong Di road.  (I'm not sure how far this is.  It's a 20 to 30 minute stroll...so less than a mile if you go the whole distance)
4. Along the way, you count the brides. 
5. No groom counting allowed.  In a wedding party, it's hard to figure out which bored-looking-guy-in-a-suit is the groom.  Brides, on the other hand, are easy to figure out.  They are the prima-donnas in the white dresses.
6. You're only allowed to count each bride once.  (You police yourself.  It's an honor thing, like keeping score in golf.)
7.  You're only allowed to count going from North-to-South.  Or from South-to-North.  Only in one direction.  You're not allowed to count on the return trip because you might accidentally count some brides twice. 

So far, my record is 26...and I had to start counting all over at one point because I lost track.   That was the week before Theresa came, and I happened to hit the lakeshore in primetime for bride viewing - about 2:00 pm.  On that day, the brides were fighting each other while dodging the bicycles and skateboards to get to the prime picture taking locations.  In a couple of the photos above you can make out where there are two couples....one waiting for the other to finish their photos and give up the spot.

My lowest score is 14, but that is because I went out after 4:00 pm an a cold and windy day.

Outside the lake shore park area, running North-South,  is the main traffic road.  This road is the staging area for the happy couples shuttling in and out.  It's fun to walk this route on the return trip.  On a normal day, you see more rented tuxedos than at the Senior Prom.  On a busy day, you get to see the limosines backed up in their mini-traffic-jams waiting fordrop-offs and pick-ups.  There's usually some poor older guy standing watch over the parked car arguing with the meter maid that a parking ticket is not a welcome wedding gift.  I'm assuming these are the fathers.  That's the kind of job that fathers do.