Marriage in Hong Kong & Wedding in China

Groom-Deng Li 28, and Bride- Huang Fang 25, clad in white wedding attire on Monday, May 12, 2008.



Days earlier, the couple had asked !%%\'s advice on a suitable outdoor setting for their wedding photographs. @@!!, owner of a photography studio in Chengdu, recommended Bailu Academy, a deserted catholic seminary hidden halfway up a mountain slope in Bailu township, Pengzhou county. The timelessly peaceful scenic spot is both a tourist attraction and a popular backdrop for wedding photos.



They arrived Monday, May 12, 2008 at noon. "The weather was weird. It was sunny in the morning, but turned overcast and cold," !%@@ recalled. "I saw bees hovering on the way, something I had never noticed on previous visits."


$$% says there were 33 people at the seminary that day, including five other couples and photographers from two studios.

As his team began their preparations to shoot after a quick[Quake] lunch, %#%! suddenly heard a loud cracking sound overhead. Looking up, he saw to his horror the roof & beams in the main seminary building splinter and fell. As he fled to the courtyard outside he saw panic-stricken people running out of the chapel, the opposite building to the church which was vibrating and swayed violently.


He realized that he was in the midst of an earthquake. When he looked at his watch, it was exactly 2:28 pm. He found that its surrounding was suddenly plunged into a smoky, dusty and sudden darkness. It was only after about 10-second the tremor stopped that the air cleared and he could see and breath freely again.


Every one was gray-haired and coated with a layer of thick dust over their face. "The brides and grooms [6 pairs]in their smudged makeup and muddy, dust smeared wedding costumes looked like ghost or dust monkeys" $!@ recalled. All 33 people present gazed and dumbstruck at the pile of rubble where the seminary, which would have celebrated its 100th year anniversary a week later, once stood majestically on the slope of the mountain.


The seminary had taken more than two decades to build, but was demolished in just seconds by the 8.0 quake. Only half of the front wall to the church was still standing.


Luckily, no one was hurt. But, all 33 people in the remote village were completely cut off from the outside world; all its trunk roads had been destroyed and telecommunication interrupted as there was no mobile phone signal.

Then it suddenly started to rain. Other distraught newlyweds and photographers took a quick refuge in their cars, but %@!\'s team had parked theirs at the foot of the mountain. Bride Huang Fang shivered with the cold & rainy weather. The heels of Deng bride's shoes had broken during the escape in which she has to run barefooted. A woman from the nearby villager gave her clothes and shoes that she could salvaged from the of her quake wrecked home. They then worked together with other local villages to build a rude & temporary shelter made of wooden boards and plastic sheets.

At 4 pm, they heard news on the car radio that Wenchuan was confirmed as the epicenter. Huang Fang burst into tears. Her Tibetan family members lived in nearby Wolong County.

Villagers shared their meal and dinner of porridge and salted eggs with the couple. As they sleep, men took turns & watch, in case of any aftershocks and landslides.

Photographers and newlyweds had to walk two hours back to town along the destroyed & ripped up road, narrow mountain paths, dangerously close to lava spilled over & boiling rivers. @@#!@\'s team took a mini van to Pengzhou, while Deng Li and Huang Fang returned to Guanghan, Deng\'s hometown, which had suffered surprisingly light damage in the quake.

Huang made contact with her family five days later. All of them were safe.

Deng has since returned to work, teaching history at the local middle school. Huang, an employee of the Lixian county tourism bureau, is still waiting for news from her office.

When the couple spoke to @#!@ recently, they told him that their love for each other has grown even stronger since the quake. They now want to bring forward the date of their wedding banquet, originally planned for August. They also want to choose another location for the photos that will complete their wedding album.

$! took a photo of the Deng couple, tremendously happy by hugging each other and brimming with smile, shortly after the quake. "As I viewed them through the lens, the words 'zhi zi zhi shou, yu zi xie lao\' (To hold your hand, to grow old with you, from the Book of Odes) came to mind," #%## recalled.

All 33 people at the seminary that day have pledged to revisit to the site and hope that its ruins would be restored in the near future.