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Couples tie the knot on 12/12/12

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Lovebirds across China and beyond rushed to tie the knot on Wednesday - 12/12/12 - seeking an extra dose of luck on the last symmetrical date for nearly 100 years.

A college student (center left) courts his girlfriend with the help of his classmates in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, on Wednesday. The date 12/12/12 is interpreted by many as a once-per-century day for courtship. [Photo/China Daily]

Bumper numbers were reported at registry offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, causing lengthy lines and extra stress for staff members.

"We got here at about 10 in the morning and were No 960 on the list," said Fan Zhijuan, as she waited with her fiance at the office in Beijing's Haidian district.

After more than three hours, they still had over 100 couples ahead of them.

An added attraction was that the date when said in Chinese sounds like "will love, will love, will love".

Fan, however, said she had chosen the special day for practical as well as romantic reasons. "It's an easy anniversary date to remember". Two of her college friends also decided to tie the knot.

"After we're done, we're going to a restaurant to celebrate," she said.

Outside the Haidian office, Yuan Bo and Gao Qiong posed in the snow as a passerby took a snapshot of them with their newly stamped marriage certificate.

"We're so lucky - we even got registered at 12 am. It was a coincidence," said Yuan, 28, an IT worker.

The couple, who had been together since high school in East China's Anhui province, said they were going shopping for jewelry later.

For Zhu Yanyan in Shanghai, the date she chose to wed her fiance could not have had more meaning: Not only had the couple been together for 12 years, but she said her English name is Twelve.

"We also wanted to get married before Dec 21, which, as legend has it, will be the end of the world," the 30-year-old joked.

According to the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, 4,883 couples were registered for marriage on Wednesday, a record for the year.

"The number we had was more than the amount we usually get in a month," said Liu Mingxia, director of marriage management for the city's Huangpu district.

Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, saw 2,410 lovebirds tie the knot by 4 pm, including 21 with a foreign bride or groom, authorities said. The number was 1,800 more than on Valentine's Day this year.

About 2,000 couples obtained marriage registration certificates on Wednesday in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, Xinhua News Agency reported.

In Beijing, more than 4,200 couples made online reservations to register on Wednesday, four times the number for an ordinary day.

Similar scenes occurred in Hong Kong (696 couples married) and Singapore (540). Hong Kong's five marriage registries were packed with hundreds of people taking photos of brides and grooms in full wedding regalia.

"There won't be a 13/13/13," 34-year-old groom Raymond Ip told AFP, adding that he had booked the day six months in advance.

However, the surge created a bottleneck for civil servants working behind the counters.

Chen Ru, director of Haidian's marriage registration office, said her colleagues started work at 7 am, two hours earlier than usual.

"Ordinarily, we open 10 service windows. Today we opened 15," Chen said.

Younger Chinese are more picky about marriage registration dates than previous generations.

Valentine's Day, Oct 10, 2010 - 10/10/10 - and Nov 11, 2011 - 11/11/11 - have also been among the popular dates in recent years.

But there may be another date coming soon for romantics. Couples are expected to flock to marriage registration offices on Jan 4, 2013, which sounds similar to "love you forever" in Chinese.

"We really hope people don't jump on the bandwagon," added Chen in Haidian. "If you're really in love, every day is a good day to make it official."

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