More than 170,000 couples married in Beijing in 2006, up 77%
over 2005, a year witnessing the most weddings in the past 25
years.
Beijing Evening News reports the Beijing administrative
office of marriage says the annual number of weddings totaled only
70,000 to 120,000 in the past five years.
The wedding peak in 1981, in which year more than 200,000
couples married, ushered in the birth peak in the 1980s. The
generation born in the 1980s is now reaching legal age for marriage
in recent years.????
Beijing also attracts talents into the high-tech industry and
college graduates from other provinces and cities, who add to pool
of marriageable youth.
In 2001, about 28% of marriages were combinations of local
residents and citizens from other provinces. That number rose to
40% in 2006.
Remarriages have also increased. About 20,000 couples divorced
and returned to being single in 2006.
An official with the Beijing administrative office of marriage
told a journalist at Beijing Evening News that couples
prefer auspicious days in traditional Chinese culture for their
wedding days. The administrative office always sees the busiest
times on such days. On an auspicious day in last December, about
4,400 couples registered marriage in the office.
The year of 2006 was thought to be a good year for wedding and
2007 good for having children. Some even pushed their weddings
forward to marry in 2006.????
(CRI February 13, 2007)