It will be easier for foreigners or Taiwanese people to register marriages with Chinese mainland's partners from January 1, the Daily Sunshine reported Sunday.

Marriages between foreigners or Taiwanese with local residents can be registered at one of the six district civil affairs bureaus rather than having to line up at the municipal civil affairs bureau as in the past.
   
The couple should go to the relevant district civil affairs bureau where their Chinese wives or husbands' hukous are located.
   
This is the second reform in the city's marriage laws, after a new nationwide marriage registration regulation was implemented last October.
   
The municipal civil affairs bureau said this had been a boom year for marriage and divorce registrations for local and overseas residents after last year's reform which reduced registration procedures.
   
A total of 178 couples involving overseas people registered at the bureau for marriage while 20 couples were divorced between January and November this year.
   
This month, three couples with overseas partners were registering marriages each day and the number was expected to keep increasing until the Chinese Lantern Festival, which falls on Feb. 23.

(Shenzhen Daily December 27, 2004)