New Year's Day 2008 seems to be a great day for getting married -- more than 1,360 couples yesterday registered for marriage in Shanghai, 500 more than last New Year's Day.

Yesterday's marriage registrations were about three times the normal. Pudong New Area and Xuhui and Yangpu districts had the most marriage registrations, according to the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.

Yangpu District held a special registration ceremony for the first couple of the morning, wishing them a lucky and auspicious life.

The couple, a bride named Jiang and a bridegroom named Ge, arrived at the marriage registration hall at 6 am ensuring themselves of marriage certificate No. 000001 in the district.

But they were not the earliest. Liu Qian and her bridegroom began their wait outside the marriage registration hall in Baoshan District at 2 am along with their parents. Liu said she could not be sure that she would be first in line if she had waited until dawn.

According to the bureau's marriage management division, New Year's Day has always been a popular day for marriages.

"The year 2008 is also the year of Olympics and many new couples want to become Olympic couples," said Zhou Jixiang, director of the division.

"Many of them will also hope to produce Olympic babies," he added.

Zhou said the bureau's online registration for New Year's Day had been filled several months ago.

Although it was a national holiday yesterday, the city's 20 marriage registration offices were all open, with more than 200 staff members busy.

(Shanghai Daily January 2, 2008)