Wang Yi

Local lovebirds who want to tie the knot on August 8, the day the Olympic Games opens, will most likely get their wishes.

The municipal government of Beijing recently denied a rumor that its marriage registration office might close on the day in anticipation of a large crowd of couples much bigger than it could handle.

Vice mayor of Beijing Ding Xiangyang said the government will do its best to accommodate the couples’ wishes to marry on the auspicious day, with three “eights” – a lucky number to Chinese.

A newlywed couple kiss at a wedding ceremony in the National Aquatic Center, or Water Cube, in this April 28 file photo. As employees of the company that built the Olympic venue, these seven lucky couples are among the many who are associating their wedding with the 2008 Beijing Games.[Asianewsphoto]

Although Ding recommended they use the online registration service, which is more convenient and timesaving, most couples seem in favor of the “I-do” process in person.

Wang Jian and fiancée Liu Lan, both 28, felt relieved upon hearing Ding’s statement. But they weren’t sure if they would be able to make it to the office in the early morning.

So they decided to start queuing from outside the office a day before. That’s because they read about a woman using the name Vivismile who wrote about her registration experience in Beijing on August 8 last year on 55bbs.com, a web community.

Vivismile and her fiancé managed to reach the registration office in Xuanwu District of Beijing at 7 am, one-and-a-half hours ahead of the office opening, only to find 118 couples were ahead of them. Vivismile and her man waited the whole day and didn’t finish the marrige registration until 6 pm.

According to the Legal Evening News, there were at least 1,500 pairs of couples registered to marry in Beijing on August 8, 2007.