In comparison, the Great Gate, a literal version of the popular TV series under the same title that have been recently aired by the China Central Television, ranked the fifth in sales during the same period.

"Our starting print for the separate edition of the new Marriage Law is 500,000, higher than any other law book we've published," Mao Yuansheng, sales director of the Law Press, said.

Zhang Min, the social science book section director of Xinhua Bookstore's outlet in Beijing's Wangfujing, said more than 1,000 copies of the Marriage Law by various publishing houses were sold out in the store last month, topping the social science books.

Meanwhile, another 105 copies of the law had been sold from April 30 to June 6 in Beijing Book Mall, listed the eighth among all the books of separate edition.

That the Marriage Law makes such a strike is because it covers everyday life. It has everything to do with each person. In fact, the law has attracted the attentions from not only the buyers, but also the publishing houses.

So far, five or six presses have published the new law in separate edition, while generally, a law book in such edition has two or three publishers.

(Eastday.com 06/11/2001)