Photo: Channel News Asia

A Married Couple in China Were Photographed Together While Traveling, a Decade Before They Met

China Family Travel
by Henry Miller Mar 15, 2018

Nothing makes a relationship feel like it was simply meant to be more than a sense of fate. That is what Mr. Ye got a heavy dose of while rummaging through a box of his wife’s photos from nearly two decades ago, one of which has him in the background.

Back in July of 2000, Mr. Ye (only the couple’s surnames have been publicized) was part of a tour group that was visiting the city of Qingdao, in the Shandong Province. At the same time, Ms. Xue was touring the seaside city with her mother, who had recently undergone surgery and was in need of a vacation.

As tourists in Qingdao are wont to do, both Mr. Ye and Ms. Xue stopped by the May Fourth Square, which commemorates a movement to return the Qingdao to Chinese control after World War I and the end of German colonization.

May Fourth Square is famous for its massive abstract red sculpture, so naturally both Ye and Xue separately had their pictures taken in front of it. It was that photo of his wife that Ye stumbled across while going through photos in his mother-in-law’s closet.

To his surprise, he noticed himself getting his picture taken in the background of her photo.

The odds of this happening are astronomical. The couple would not officially meet until 11 years later in a city thousands of miles away.

“When I saw the photo I was taken by surprise and I got goosebumps all over my body” Ye said. “That was my pose for taking photos.” He then found his own photo, and immediately shared his incredible find on social media, where it took off as evidence that some people are just meant to be together.

“It seems that Qingdao is certainly one of the most special cities,” added Ye. “When the children are older we’ll go to Qingdao again and the family will take another photo.”

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