China´s couples throng to marry for triple eight

A total of 19 pairs of newlyweds from 12 cities of China hold a romantic group wedding on the sea in Olympic cohost city Qinhuangdao, north China's Hebei Province, at about 11 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2008, 9 hour countdown to the opening ceremony of the Olympics.(Xinhua/Gong Zhihong)

 About 300 extra staff were added to helping the 18 marriage registration staff at Chaoyang's civil affairs bureau, where 2,418 booked registration, He Tieqing said.

    "It took only three minutes to register," said Tang Guinan. "The clerk checked our forms, gave us the certificates and congratulated us."

    "We will continue to work after the normal closing time of 6 p.m. if there are still couples to register," He said. "We will definitely make sure that every couple today will be registered."

    But despite the flood of weddings, many hotels and restaurants are had few bookings for wedding banquets. Usually Chinese couples register their marriage and hold wedding banquets on different dates.

    A staff member at the five-star Prime Hotel, on the renowned shopping street of Wangfujing in downtown Beijing, said it would take no reservations for wedding banquets until early September, because it was one of the contract hotels of the Olympic Games.

    Not every couple is rushing to catch the tide of "Olympic weddings."

    Chu Meng had planned earlier this year to get married on Aug. 8, but she began to have doubts about the date after the devastating magnitude-8 earthquake hit Sichuan, southwest China, on May 12.

    "I heard the numbers of the date coincidentally added up to eight. It all sounds very superstitious, but there's no reason for me to risk having any bad luck for this important day in my life," said Chu, who works for a Canadian consulting firm.

    She finally changed her mind as the day approached. "The date has a triple eight. It's too perfect; I'm afraid that it will have the opposite result."

    Most couples delayed their wedding banquets to avoid the inconvenience of traffic controls and being upstaged by the Games opening ceremony, which will feature thousands of performers and extravagant fireworks.

    Wang Dongxiao, manager of the 168 Wedding Planning Company, said they declined work at more than 30 wedding banquets on Friday because of the restrictions on cars that only allow vehicles on the street with odd and even number on alternate days.

    "We only accepted four wedding banquets outside the Fifth Ring Road, where traffic control measures don't apply," he said.

 

Editor:Lan Xiujuan