Melanie Kathleen Chilley and Robert David Cole have become the
first foreign couple granted a marriage certificate by authorities
in Guangzhou since the People's Republic of China was founded in
1949.
On Saturday, Huang Pingxin of the Guangzhou Civil Affairs Bureau
handed the red marriage certificate to the British couple.
Cole, who works for a European illumination appliance company,
was sent to Guangzhou last October and Chilley joined him six weeks
later. They decided to register their marriage in China, which is
allowed by British law and by the new marriage registration
regulations promulgated last autumn.
According to the regulations, foreign couples can register their
marriage with the Bureau of Civil Affairs by providing passports,
certificates of unmarried status and certificates that their home
country recognizes marriages registered in China.
This last requirement is a stickler for many. The Guangzhou
Civil Affairs Bureau reports that many foreigners wish to wed here,
but that their home countries do not recognize the legality of
marriages registered abroad.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn August 17, 2004)