I just took a look at Gary Fong’s blog and learned that his grandmother and our former governor Gary (see a Gary) Locke’s grandfather were related, as brother and sister. Quite interesting, isn’t it?! Now we have two Garys in town, one is a former governor, and one is a former wedding photographer. The older Gary is busy doing business with China, and the younger one is busy making money. Nice! I like it that Gary Fong is in town…who knows, I may just stop by at his Beltown condo and ask him some ‘ShowCase’ questions…;-)

Welcome to Seattle, GF!

It was a too nice sunny, warm spring day in the Pacific Northwest to hit the indoor pool, so we took Anton out to the campus of UW. The cherry trees are not fully blosom yet, but the UW campus was very pretty. Who knows…18 or 19 years from now, he may go here.

Russia. Beijing Wedding Show

The highlight of the last day of the wedding show was a contest for the most beautiful couple. I didn’t go and look but was lucky to be around when they arrived…

Inside the expo, with my pretty female friend in my arm, we pretended being a couple (the most mature…) and sat down and checked out a couple of albums. Not very impressed. Instead, this model’s big eye lashes were definitely more attractive.

Beijing Expo…back then (20 + years ago) there weren’t much to exibit so it was often closed. But it was more connected to a famous place for foods - the ‘Moscow Dinning Hall’. It served awesome Russian foods. For this weekend, the Expo host Beijing Internatioanl Wedding Show.

As soon as I entered the show, I knew the wedding business in Beijing continues to be a studio dominated business. Five or six studio with fancy names such as “New York, New York”, “Paris Spring”, etc., had the biggest show areas in the main hall. It was an understatement to say studio’s show area, it was more of a booking area. Each studio would have 50 or so tables and their staff were busy trying to book couples who were willing to sit down and check out the albums (guys kind of appeared bored). It’s like you were walking in a fast foods place during weekday lunch hours…you won’t see that in the U.S.

The other big players were the wedding planners. If the studios (”New York, New York”! Wow.) reminded me of a busy McDonald, the planners show areas were more like a corner deli.

And of course you can’t have a wedding show nowadays without Canon. I played the 5D and really liked it…very likely will have Canon sucking out some money out of my bank soon.

I spent about two hours wandering around and realized I need to come back with a female. Da Studios wouldn’t even look at my direction. A middle aged man with a camera was no good for their business.

I was flying to Beijing, China, for its third annual Beijing International Wedding Show. There are many reason sto check out this market in China. Just think about the number of brides each year! A Beijing bride spends on an average of 120 thousands RMB on her wedding (approx. $150 thousands). Not to mention this is the Year of Dog…a good year to get married!

This picture was taken ovor Russia…breath taking view! A lady next to me said it would great if they could live there…yeah righ.