Local authorities in China are setting up marriage registration counters in unusual places, such as maternity hospitals, banks, and nightclubs, to make the marriage process as quick and accessible as possible.
After temples, nightclubs and even airports began offering marriage registration services, a bank and a hospital have now joined the growing list of unusual venues, amid China’s push to encourage marriage and government’s efforts to encourage couples to tie the knot.
In August, a branch of the Postal Savings Bank of China in Tianjin became the country’s first bank to offer marriage registration services. The unusual combination of banking and romance quickly became a talking point online, with social media users joking that only a hospital offering the same service could top it.
On August 20, coinciding with the Qixi Festival — widely celebrated as Chinese Valentine’s Day — the Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Linzi District in Zibo City, Shandong province, announced that it had begun providing marriage registration services.
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The hospital said the initiative was designed to make life more convenient for newlyweds by bringing marriage registration, premarital health examinations and preconception guidance under one roof.
China’s airports have already entered the wedding-registration arena. In January, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in Guangdong became the country’s first airport to issue marriage certificates. Couples registering there also received free access to the airport’s observation deck, offering them a chance to watch aircraft take off and land.
The trend gained momentum after China revised its marriage registration regulations in May last year. Under the updated rules, couples can register their marriages outside the location listed in their hukou, or household registration. They are also no longer required to present their hukou booklets, making the process considerably easier.
The regulatory changes paved the way for a wave of unconventional registration venues across the country, including tourist attractions, public parks, temples and metro stations.
In Beijing and Nanjing, centuries-old temples have opened their doors to couples seeking to register their marriages while dressed in traditional attire. In Hefei, Anhui province, a metro station became the first transport facility in China to provide marriage registration services this August.
Shanghai, meanwhile, took a more nightlife-oriented approach, with a nightclub teaming up with the local civil affairs bureau to host special marriage certificate ceremonies inside the club.
By May this year, just one year after the revised regulations came into effect, China reportedly had more than 500 marriage registration sites operating outside conventional civil affairs bureaus. More than 1,300 outdoor locations had also partnered with civil affairs authorities to issue marriage certificates.
The simplified registration system also applies to divorce. However, many outdoor marriage registration locations do not offer divorce services, citing the need for more extensive documentation.
The growing variety of marriage-registration venues has been widely viewed as part of a broader government effort to make marriage more accessible and potentially reverse declining marriage rates.
The initial figures offered some encouragement. In the third quarter of last year, 1.61 million couples registered their marriages across China — a 22.5 per cent increase from the same period a year earlier.
For the full year, China recorded 6.76 million marriage registrations, up by 657,000 from the previous year.
However, the momentum has not continued this year. During the first half of this year, marriage registrations fell 7.5 per cent year-on-year, with 3.28 million couples getting married.
