This Incredible 500-Person Family Photo Will Put Your Tiny Reunion To Shame

Five hundred people who have the family name "Ren" descended to Shengzhou, a village in China, for the biggest family reunion you're likely to ever see.

The reunion was organized by Ren Tuanjie (yes, one of the Rens), who is working on reuniting as many Rens as possible to the east China province of Zhejiang.

The group met in the village for Ren Tuanjie's massive reunion attempt. Thirteen genealogy scrolls were used to trace the family and find all the people they possibly could to bring together.

These family members are from the 25th to 31st generations of Rens. They believe that there are more than 1,000 people still alive from the Ren family.

Ren Tuanjie is trying to document them all, especially those who left the village.

The photos show a relatively orderly scene for the 500-person family reunion. Ren Tuanjie set up the picture himself, shouting instructions through a portable speaker.

All in all, it took about 30 minutes to get the pictures taken.

The family reunion photos were taken at the village. The Ren family posed by the basalt formations at the village.

My mother's family is also from a small village from where a lot of people have moved out. We're down in south Italy, though.

For a festival every August, the family descends back to the tiny village to be together to celebrate.

This past August, we counted it up and found we had somewhere around 50 family members (including the newborn babies) flocking back to town from all over the world over the course of the month.

We felt pretty good about this showing. It seemed impressive.

But seeing this Ren family reunion 10 times the size of my own, our paltry 50 people doesn't seem quite as impressive anymore.

No matter the size of your family, though, it's the closeness that matters, not the numbers.

Citations: 500 people squeezed into the world's most epic family photo (Mashable)