A couple poses on a vibrant pink Chinese character,  which signifies good luck and is often used at weddings, in front of the marriage registration office in Beijing’s Dongcheng district on May 20, 2025. In Chinese, “520” is pronounced similarly to “I love you,” making May 20 a popular date for couples to get married. Photo: Chen Tao/GT

China registered 6.765 million marriages in 2025, up 10.8 percent from the previous year, according to a statistical bulletin released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on September 30.

The country had 4,162 marriage registration offices and service locations in 2025, including 1,134 dedicated marriage registration offices. The marriage rate stood at 4.8 per 1,000 people, up 0.5 per mille point from a year earlier, according to the Statistical Bulletin on the Development of Civil Affairs in 2025.

People aged 25 to 29 made up the largest group among those who married last year, totaling 4.99 million and accounting for 36.88 percent of the total. The age group has represented the largest share of newly married people for 13 consecutive years since 2013.

To promote convenience of marriage registration, starting May 10, 2025, couples will no longer need to register marriages in the location of their hukou, or household registration.  Since then, local governments have increasingly sought to turn what was once a routine administrative procedure into something closer to a romantic experience.

Across the country, marriage registration offices have been moving beyond government service halls and into parks, historic sites and tourist attractions. The shift has also helped draw wedding photography, banquets and tourism into the mix, creating new businesses around couples looking to make more of the day they receive their marriage certificates.

In Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, a marriage registration station at the Qingdao Film Museum has quickly become a popular destination for young couples. More than 200,000 people have visited the site since it opened, and more than 2,400 couples have registered their marriages there, according to a September report by the Guangming Daily. About 39 percent of those couples came from outside the city.

East China's Jiangsu Province has taken a similar approach, moving marriage registration services into scenic areas and other distinctive settings. The province has established 285 venues related to marriage registration and wedding customs, including 15 registration offices in scenic areas and parks, 57 specially designed registration sites, 131 outdoor venues for marriage certificate ceremonies and 82 museums and cultural centers devoted to wedding traditions.

In Xiamen, East China’s Fujian Province, officials have gone a step further during the National Day holidays (from October 1 to October 7), keeping marriage registration services open so couples can tie the knot while much of the country is on vacation, according to people.cn.

Five park-style registration sites are opening on a staggered schedule from October 1 to 7, including locations along Jimei’s Ten-Mile Causeway, Tong’an’s coastal scenic route, Gulangyu Island.

With seaside views, historic architecture and landscaped parks serving as backdrops, the sites allow couples to combine the legal formality of registering a marriage with something increasingly sought after by young newlyweds: a day worth remembering — and photographing.