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  • SHARED JOY: Fifty-nine couples get married and receive gifts during a group wedding held by the Wuhan City Government in central China's Hubei Province in 1979 (XINHUA)
  • BY BUS: Li Changle (front right) and his bride Wu Shurun, both delivery drivers in Beijing, got married on December 27, 1981, when they transferred between three buses on the way to the celebration at Li's house (XINHUA)
  • WEDDING TOUR: Twenty-three newly-married couples at Beijing's Tiananmen Square on May 1, 1987, having just attended a group wedding held by their employer, an automobile factory in Dandong City, northeast China's Liaoning Province. They traveled roughly 860 km to Beijing on a "wedding tour", the practice of going on holiday to get married in place of a traditional ceremony, a trend that had recently begun to gain popularity at the time (XINHUA)
  • GETTING READY: Kiichiro Takasaki (middle), the Japanese manager of Beijing-based Tokyu Friendship Photo Studio, a China-Japan co-partnership company, helps brides ahead of their group wedding at the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing on February 6, 1988 (TANG SHICENG)
  • RIDING HOME: A bridegroom carries his wife (front right) on the back of a bike in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, during the Spring Festival in 1990. At the time, using bicycles for the wedding procession was popular (XINHUA)
  • WEDDING BANQUET: Tibetan newlyweds Pasang Tashi and Tsering Soinam treat their guests to a home-made buffet in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on November 17, 1992 (XINHUA)
  • BETTER TOGETHER: More than 200 couple acorss the nation, celebrated their wedding together at Tiananmen Square, the heart of the nation's capital, Beijing, on April 22, 1993 (XINHUA)
  • STADIUM CEREMONY: Gao Liping (front right), a teacher at Shandong Normal University, and Duan Ying, an employee with Jinan Xiehe Telecommunications Corporation, holding their wedding ceremony during a football match in Jinan, the capital city of east China's Shandong Province, on June 16, 1996. Several tens of thousands of fans present celebrated together with them at the Chinese A League match, now the Chinese Football Association Super League (ZHANG LUCHENG)
  • UNDER THE SEA: Li Ming (right), 28, puts a wedding ring on his bride Ni Ying, 24, during a seafloor wedding ceremony at the Shanghai Ocean World Aquarium on November 13, 1999 (XINHUA)
  • OLD FASHIONED: A couple rehearses for a traditional wedding ceremony at the 300-year-old Zheng Yi Ci Theater in downtown Beijing, on April 19, 2000. The theater offers service packages for newly weds (LIU YU)
  • STARS FOR A DAY: Ding Conggao and Hong Linghong, farmers from Wenling City, east China's Zhejiang Province, shooting a music video for their wedding on January 9, 2003. The customized service includes designing movie-like plots for couples (XINHUA)
  • FEELING FINE: Bai Dapeng (first left) and Fan Liping, doctors from Tianjin Pulmonary Hospital, celebrate their simple wedding while working in quarintine at their hospital in north China's Tianjin Municipality on May 6, 2003 during the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which exerted heavy tolls on China's health and economy (XINHUA)
  • ONLINE ROMANCE: Best known by their screen names, "Nao Dan" (right), a photographer, and "Kai Xin", an editor, taking wedding photos in Beijing on September 24, 2006. The couple hosted their wedding on their online blog four days later, on September 28 (CHEN JIANLI)
  • ECOLOGICAL LOVE: Two cyclists (in red) get married while cycling through Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, on October 6, 2006. Being environmental-friendly and cheap, the using of bicycles for wedding processions is becoming popular again, some couples choosing to do so to add a touch of individuality to their special day (XINHUA)
  • FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: Twenty-nine Chinese couples throw bouquets of flowers at the end of their wedding ceremony in St. Petersburg on June 16, 2007. It was the first Chinese group wedding in Russia (XINHUA)
  • CROSS-CULTURAL: American bridegroom Karl and his Chinese bride Liu Xue at their wedding in Liu's hometown Longnan County, central China Jiangxi Province, on February 12, 2008 (XINHUA)

Chinese wedding ceremonies have gone through massive transformations in the 35 years since the country's reform and opening up in 1978

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