When bank clerk Ren Yingxiao was looking for a honeymoon destination with her partner, they came across a scenic spot in the Xinjiang region in mainland China that had it all – including a marriage registration office.
“So we thought, why not go there and get our marriage certificate as well?” the 30-year-old said about secluded Sayram Lake, where authorities are trying to attract young Chinese to tie the knot as part of a nationwide push to boost marriage rates and ease the country’s demographic crisis.
In May, China began allowing couples to get married anywhere in the country, rather than at their place of residence, making the process more convenient and the event more special.
Local governments have since started scrambling for marriage tourists, setting up registration offices around scenic spots, at music festivals and even in subway stations, shopping centres and parks.
For now, the effort is working.
Marriages, which demographers use as a proxy for the country’s birth rate, rose 22.5 per cent from a year earlier to 1.61 million in the third quarter of 2025, putting China on track to halt a downtrend in annual nuptials, which has gone almost uninterrupted for more than a decade.
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