I Was Best Man at a Chinese Wedding

Two months ago I went to china and it was arguably one of the most eye-opening travel experiences I've ever had.

Seeing how fast that country moves and everything that's possible has completely flipped my perspective on why America may or may not be the greatest country in the world anymore.

So how did we get here?

If you check out my 2026 bingo card, "travel to china" was never on there. But when the opportunity presented itself there was no way I would turn down the chance to visit Shanghai. My girlfriend's sister-in-law just got her green card, so she was able to visit family for the first time. I was fortunate to get the invite to tag along.

So instead of giving you just a think piece on why I think China is so incredible, I'm just going to share all the coolest things I did on the trip and why this place rocked my world.

Buckle up, here’s how it went down…

We flew through the Korean airport, which might be the biggest and most beautiful airport I've ever been in.

Landed in Shanghai, warmly welcomed by our hosts (gf’s, sister in-laws’, parents), and beelined to the restaurant owned by our host family. We were also gifted $400 worth of Chinese Yuan as a Chinese new year gift when we landed. I guess Chinese people love giving gifts for Chinese new year?

How would a traveler reward themselves for 27 hours of grueling travel? A 24-hour spa, of course. We went to Shuixie Lanting at 11am and left at 9pm. Custom spa linens. They had a storm room, salt rooms, 3+ saunas, game rooms, nap rooms, and an all-you-can-eat gourmet buffet.

Shanghai is divided by a river, and on one side is the Bund where you can see the insane skyscrapers of the Shanghai financial district. Shanghai has some pretty bad pollution days, so make sure to go when the air quality is good.

The Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center lays out the city's whole plan for modernization and development. It walks you from Shanghai's treaty-port past all the way up to the Shanghai 2035 master plan, with the long-game vision stretching out to 2050. It was crazy to see how far they thought ahead on how to modernize and build this city out. Not just vertically but into the ground too.

Ate a pigeon. That is all.

Before meeting my girlfriend (whose also Chinese) I never heard of Peking duck. We had it at least 4 times in Shanghai. I can see why they love it so much. One of the highlights was our hosts took us to Sheng Yong Xing (Huangpu), a Michelin-starred restaurant on the bund known for its Peking duck. The first bite with caviar still lives rent free in my head.

We visited Yu Garden. Very pretty, less crowded in the morning, but i heard the lights make it way cooler at night. Just way more crowded.

Met up with my friend Philip Ruffini. I met Philip through my friend Erika and twitter. The first night we met I begged him to come to my first ever plunge party. His response was "I love your energy, but I’m not coming." We've stayed in touch ever since and now he lives in China with his girlfriend while running an overseas hiring business.

He showed us some local markets and we did happy hour at Flair, the rooftop bar on the 58th floor of the Ritz Carlton. The view was awesome but I dont do well in tall buildings.

We saw a live performance at KEZEE (also known as KZ). It's a 5-story multiplex with the best sound system in the world. They have live musical performers that switched out every 15-20 minutes while everyone sat at a table stuffing their face with food and bottle service. Imagine having Sichuan spicy food, a bottle of Grey Goose, and a Chinese man singing you Bruno Mars and Adam Levine songs. Absolutely electric. Everything here revolves around food. Not just drinking.

After the show we explored the rest of the venue, which had 4 more stories with different clubs and a fantasy playground in the basement where apparently i could play beyblades in a makeshift harry potter quidditch replica… that's china, man.

The next day I was best man at a Chinese wedding. Since Sherry's brother never had a formal wedding, her dad wanted to throw a celebration for him and his friends. Her sister-in-law didn't even know this was happening. So sherry and I were asked to be best man and maid of honor at this dinner banquet at her sister-in-law's family restaurant.

We had no idea what we were walking into but this was probably one of the coolest experiences I've gotten in my entire life and here's why. The night of the wedding we walked into a banquet room of 120 Chinese people who did not speak a lick of English. The only phrase I need to know as “Ganbei” (cheers). We were sat at the table all the way to the front, with endless packs of cigarettes and baijiu.

Center spinners with fish I've never seen before: dumplings, shark, snake, frog, chicken feet, and things I don't even know the names of because it was Chinese.

At the wedding they played Spin the Wheel, where every attendee had the chance to win a prize, just because. Prizes ranged from PlayStations to iPads, Labubus, and more cigarettes.

Part 2 of china was something I was exceptionally stoked for: Zhangjiajie (which took me 6 weeks to learn how to properly pronounce). I would consider it the Yosemite of china, on steroids (like everything there). What is so special about this place? It was the inspiration behind the world design of Avatar. And I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Zhangjiajie National Park was breathtaking. It was like a green grand canyon with sky pillars, rivers, and monkeys. This place has the infrastructure and set-up for what looked like it was ready to handle amusement-park traffic. That's how busy this place gets during peak season.

Tianmen Mountain. Overlooks downtown Zhangjiajie and is another world wonder. We took a gondola from downtown Zhangjiajie up, then climbed the 999 steps to heaven’s gate, then another set of 7 escalators to get to the top of the mountain.

Up there we walked around the entire perimeter of the mountain, along glass bridges, and visited the Buddhist temple on the mountain top. I later found out that this place hosts a lot of extreme-sports events like Red Bull and crazy races.

When we got back to Shanghai, we took a bullet train to Hangzhou. Highly recommend you try a bullet train out, makes you ask why we dont have more in the US. Hangzhou is considered a cute and peaceful getaway from Shanghai… When i showed up I quickly learned that does not mean it's small. It's the size of Los Angeles and home to the tech giant Alibaba.

But we came for West Lake and to try the legendary green tea. We took a private boat around the lake and went to the tea fields. It was so busy in parts of Hangzhou that I asked my girlfriend to ask a random Chinese local to drive us to the tea fields bc we couldn't get a Didi (Chinese uber). Worked out great btw. The tea fields were beautiful at sunset, and I took some home. Some of the best (and most caffeinated) green tea i've had.

The Food - I could create 5 different posts about the food here, but it definitely helps to travel with someone whose career is built around finding the best food wherever you travel. The food in china was fresh every time and i never got bored of what we ate. The shanghai soup dumplings were a treat, the Peking duck rocked my world, the fish was full of flavor, and the food I saw made me reconsider asking "what's that."

Surveillance - there were many times, especially when i landed, that i felt watched or like I didn’t have privacy. it took some getting used to but i got over it very fast. I felt incredibly safe while I was there. There was no crime, you could leave your phone and bag out and it would never get stolen. But if you rode a bike on the sidewalk or didn’t wear a seatbelt in the backseat of a car you'd find yourself with a ticket in the mail a couple days later (I heard).

Exchange rate and costs - I enjoy balling out on some things and making my dollar go far on others. Getting to China cost around $900, but the exchange rate was great, the US dollar is strong, and i didn’t feel like i had to spend a ton of money to have a good time. The most expensive part of the trip within china was the 24-hour spa and the Flight to Zhanjiajie. Didi's were cheaper than public transport. But Shanghai is considered the NYC of china. It can be expensive in some places.

Apps - China blocks a majority of US apps like google, instagram, and facebook. You basically need to download 7 apps while you're there. Here's the "equivalent" and what they're used for.

So is America still the greatest country in the world? In some ways, of course. But after seeing China, it has opened my eyes to how fast a place can move and how advanced it gets when it decides to build. Vertically, underground, all of it. Of course there are always tradeoffs.

"Travel to china" was never on my 2026 bingo card. But by saying yes, I ended up on a trip of a lifetime that fliped how I see the world.

If you say yes enough times, you’ll look up one day with a beautiful life. Say yes to the thing that scares you a little. You'll come home with some great stories.

You’re Awesome,

Jared

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A few gems I found on the internet this week - no digging required

• Ben Lang on how to get hired by a start-up. Helpful in this wild job market that we are in right now.

• This guy made an app that tracks and lets you book empty legs for private jets.

• Josh Suggs on a frameowork for how to make great ads (and get paid for it)

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