Red lanterns raised for first shelter wedding

Last Saturday was the first wedding of the temporary shelter communities in Dujiangyan, central Sichuan province, since people moved in following the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake.

Over a thousand guests, neighbors and former quake-relief volunteers witnessed a simple but romantic wedding ceremony held for Ma Jianqiang, a Canadian-Chinese man and Ji Yanli, a local girl.

It was a simple wedding. No brilliant wedding lights. No dazzling music band. No big wedding banquet. A small wooden makeshift podium was set up and decorated with flowers for the wedding ceremony on open ground, at Division C of the Happy Home Temporary Shelter Area in Dujiangyan, one of the urban centers hardest-hit by the quake.