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)