We spent a few whirlwind days in Suibin, and the adventure began almost immediately with a visit to the local police station. Since I was staying with family instead of a hotel, registration was required. From the officers’ reactions, it was clear that a Western visitor in Suibin is something of a novelty. I was promptly whisked into a side room, where this efficiency came to a halt once they realized I didn’t speak a word of Mandarin. My wife was summoned, smiles appeared all around, and the situation resolved itself with me posing for a photo with the police chief—apparently for their newsletter—before being cheerfully released back into the wild.
After that, we attended what I thought would be a small wedding reception. In reality, my wife’s mother had organized a full-scale production to celebrate our marriage with family and friends. I knew there would be an event, but I was not prepared for the extent of it: a banquet hall, dramatic lighting, a live singer, and a video montage chronicling my wife’s and my lives over the years. My wife was immediately swept upstairs by a swarm of aunts and cousins she hadn’t seen in years, where she was enthusiastically dolled up for the occasion. Meanwhile, unable to speak a word of Mandarin, I hovered on the sidelines, smiling, nodding, and desperately trying to remember who was related to whom. Eventually, I was reunited with my now even more stunning wife, just in time for firecrackers to explode outside and for us to be hurried onto the stage for short speeches—during which it once again became clear that I do not, in fact, speak Mandarin. Then came the food. And more food. And then somehow even more food, delivered in an endless parade to every table. Looking back, I can’t help but laugh at the image of myself trying to navigate an event filled with unfamiliar faces, a foreign language, and traditions and dishes I had never seen before. Confusing? Yes. Overwhelming? Definitely. But it was also a wonderfully memorable afternoon, and one neither my wife nor I will ever forget.
The next morning, we traveled with family to honor my wife’s granddad who has passed away since the last time she had been in China. We first stopped at a local store to pick up fake money and
After the reception and time spent honoring loved ones who had passed, my wife and I set out to walk Suibin’s main thoroughfare. Unlike many American towns shaped around cars and single-family homes, Suibin feels compact and lived-in, with families clustered in mid-rise apartment towers that naturally give way to a walkable commercial center. We lingered through boutique clothing shops, small pastry stores, and the local mall, where a surprisingly large grocery store occupied the basement level. Tucked away on a side street, we also found a modest school supply shop that my wife used to visit as a child. Ordinary as it might seem, it was quietly delightful to notice the subtle differences in the supplies compared to those in the West—and even more so to watch her smile as she remembered the ones she once loved.
We stopped by a public plaza that once housed the local hospital from my wife’s childhood. Now it was lively with activity and we sat down to eat our pastries.
