He thus chose to hold his wedding ceremony at sea.

"Whether to host a large wedding banquet or to join in a honeymoon tour is nothing special and tiring, but it is different to have our wedding ceremony and honeymoon at sea," said Chen after shooting his wedding photos by the porthole at the fore.

"We both like the sea," said Lin Lin, the bride of Chen.

Like Chen Zheng and Lin Lin, some 34 newly married couples from Guangdong Province in South China joined the honeymoon cruise first held on the SuperStar Leo, a deluxe vessel run by the Star Cruises Company.

Some other six couples also joined the cruise to celebrate their wedding anniversary.

Hong Kong-based SuperStar Leo is the first and the largest world-class megaship in Asia-Pacific. To greet the 40 couples fromthe mainland for their honeymoon, SuperStar Leo made special decoration for their cabins with pink balloons. It also sent the couples a heart-shape cake and a bottle of red wine. A large-scalegroup wedding ceremony was held on board.

The Windows, the venue of the wedding ceremony on board, was filled with the aura of jubilation. The 34 newly married couples received a certificate signed by the captain in witness of their wedding at sea. They made oath to express their love and loyalty to each other.

The cruise became extraordinary with the advent of the 40 couples from the mainland. The young couples in wedding dress could be seen everywhere on board. The Tivoli Pool on the top of the vessel at the 12th deck and the Grand Centrum with a Christmastree standing in the center became the major spots for those couples to shoot their wedding photos.

The cruise is a new vogue of travel and is very popular in Europe and America. Since the cruise was introduced by Star Cruises to the Asia Pacific, Asian people quickly accepted the newtravel program.

Those who embarked on board of SuperStar Leo for a holiday cruise include people from Hong Kong, the mainland of China, the Philippines, Japan and even Europe and America. Different languages could be heard on board.

In recent years, the market of the Chinese mainland for the cruise has been expanding very rapidly, according to Ho Yuk Ching,who is responsible of the market of south and west part of the Chinese mainland.

More and more mainland people came to like the cruise and thus Star Cruises hosted the first honeymoon cruise with the cooperation of China Travel Service Guangdong Office and the Shenzhen Jiuzhou Travel Agent, he said, adding that the honey cruise won good response in the market.

Those who joined the honeymoon cruise include the newly marriedcouples and the old couples that were married for over 30 years. Some parents also joined their daughters and the son-in-laws for the cruise. A Malaysian husband brought his Chinese wife on board for their honeymoon holiday.

The honeymoon cruise started on Dec. 15, taking the couples to Halong Bay in Vietnam and concluded on Dec. 18 in Hong Kong.

(People's Daily December 20, 2002)