A Wedding Invitation to Strangers Brings China to a Mountain Village

When Xu Chenghong invited strangers to his wedding, he thought perhaps a dozen people would come. He had few close relatives and wanted enough guests to make the occasion feel festive.

Within days, people were traveling from across China to his village in the mountains of Yunnan. Some brought refrigerators and food. Others offered cars, cooking skills or help decorating his home.

By the eve of the October 31 wedding, nearby hotels were full and the celebration had been moved to a larger square.

Xu, 24, known online as "Xiao Xiao Xu," posted the invitation on October 25. He had spent years saving to marry his girlfriend and worried that too few people would be there to celebrate with them.

His father died when he was 3, his mother remarried when he was 5, and the grandmother caring for him and his older brother died two years later, according to Jimu News.

He and his partner met online and had been together for three years.

"She was willing to be with me when I had nothing," he said.

Xu had worked in a textile factory, sold cooked food and delivered parcels. He told Dahe Daily he had saved 167,500 yuan (US$25,200).

He initially doubted that people replying to his invitation would actually make the trip, he said. Then the guests began arriving.

A wedding-industry worker surnamed Pan drove 12 hours from Huaihua in Hunan Province to help decorate his home.

Other visitors offered vehicles for the wedding procession, brought household appliances or volunteered to do hair and makeup. A farmer from Sichuan delivered two cattle worth 20,000 yuan, telling Red Star News that Xu's story had moved him to help.

The cooking began well before the wedding day.

Head chef Jia Xionglu told Red Star News that his team used two tons of chicken on October 29 alone. About 50 cooking stations kept running, and guests arriving late were still being fed after 2am.

Cooks prepared dishes from several regions, using ingredients that visitors continued to bring.

"Whatever the fans bring, we cook it all for everyone," a chef said.

As the crowds grew, local authorities helped move the festivities from the original site to a cultural square in nearby Luowang village. They also arranged emergency, fire and communications support.

Several hotels said on October 31 that people attending the wedding had booked all their rooms. Attendance estimates varied, with guests arriving over several days and local spectators coming and going.

Visitors who knew Xu only through the Internet were not expected to contribute cash. A man handling the wedding's gift register told Jimu News that it accepted customary gifts from relatives and family friends, but not from online well-wishers.

A woman who traveled from Nanjing told Knews she had been moved by Xu's efforts to build a life for himself. Its reporters saw strangers dancing shoulder to shoulder in the square.

Local tourism officials hoped some visitors would stay longer. Zhaotong's culture and tourism bureau told The Paper it was discussing discounts with scenic attractions, though details had not been finalized.