Wedding banquets brought Shanghai 55 million yuan (US$6.9
million) in business revenue over the week-long May Day holiday,
local authorities announced on Monday.
This represented a growth rate of 22 percent compared with the
corresponding period of last year, according to the Shanghai
Municipal Economic Committee.
The statistics were based on the business report of 146 hotels
in the city during the "Golden Week," which served a total of
36,800 dining tables for wedding banquets, up 16 percent over
figures a year ago.
Beijing also benefited from the wedding splurge during the
holiday with more than 1,000 wedding ceremonies held each day on
average in Beijing.
Newly-weds spent about 300 million yuan (US$37.5 million) on
weddings during the period, up 30 percent compared with the
previous year.
China introduced the two-day weekend in 1995 and extended the
duration of the Spring Festival, May Day and National Day holidays
to seven days each as from 1999. The practice has created three
so-called "Golden Weeks" for tourism and other sectors, such as
wedding and catering.
(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2006)
