The heavy fog could not obscure the romantic atmosphere in Beijing as thousands of new couples poured into their local marriage registries on Oct 10 hoping to benefit from the lucky "two tens", which, in a Chinese idiom shiquanshimei, meaning everything is perfect.

Two foreign couples pose near Bird's Nest Stadium at the Olympic Green during a group wedding on Sunday. [China Daily photo]

At Chaoyang marriage registry office, 10 windows were set aside exclusively for couples that had booked their place online in advance. Several windows were opened specially to meet the surge in the number of wedding registrations on Sunday.

"Many of my colleagues, like me, have been asked to work extra hours today, and there are more clerks helping at each window to increase efficiency," said a female worker, surnamed Li.

"When I came here to make an appointment at 3 pm yesterday, the hall was already crowded with more than 100 couples," said Ma Lin, 30.

He and his partner had handed in all the necessary documents beforehand so it only took them a couple of minutes at the window on Sunday to obtain their marriage certificate.

"I have three friends who married today. After giving them 'red packets' with 800 yuan each, I'm now on a budget for the rest of the month," said Gao Linlin, 26, a clerk.

More than 100 couples kissed for at least 10 seconds at The Place in Chaoyang district at 10:10 am to commemorate the once-in-a-100-years moment.

According to statistics from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs, the number of online marriage registration bookings all over the city on Sunday was about 10 times more than that of an average day, Beijing Morning Post reported.

The newspaper also said there were more than 1,300 couples that made their appointments in Chaoyang office on Oct 9, 1,400 in Haidian district and 600 in Dongcheng.

The auspicious day has also been a commercial windfall. Outside the registry offices, groups of employees from wedding photographic studios were busy passing out brochures to passers-by. Zhang Jun, a man from ING photographic studio said his group had given out more than 500 copies by 2 pm.

"We charge 30 percent more than usual during the Golden Week, but even so, we've seen the number of orders increase by at least 50 percent so far," Zhang said.

A receptionist, surnamed Lu, at Youyishun Restaurant, an old and famous eatery, which is very popular for wedding banquets in Beijing, said the price per person on Sunday increased by 20 percent, and the number of tables had tripled.

"In fact, more than half of our reservations were made in 2009, and we have seen more customers on Oct 10, 2010 than on Sept 9, 2009, and Aug 8, 2008," said Lu.

Wedding service companies also had their hands full. Wang Qi, a man at Beijing Yidian Wedding Service Ltd told METRO they were experiencing a shortage of ceremony hosts and hostesses, and were temporarily employing additional people with related experience to meet the market demand.

(China Daily October 11, 2010)