In Wuhan, the central Chinese city where cases of coronavirus were first recorded late last year, people are finally emerging from months of lockdown this week and starting to get back to normal.
For some couples — those whose relationships survived the weeks stuck inside together — the perfect way to celebrate the city’s rebirth is to get married.
“Today is a special day, a new start for me and for Wuhan,” Xu Lin, a Wuhan resident who got married on Wednesday, told the state-backed Global Times.
The Wuhan government officially reopened its marriage registration office last Friday, but weddings started in earnest this week as the lockdown restrictions were lifted.
According to Alipay, a subsidiary of tech giant Alibaba, which operates several government apps for Wuhan, there was a 300% increase in traffic to the marriage registration service, and many users on social media complained they could not access it.
Whether the spike in weddings will result in more married couples nationally remains to be seen, as it comes after a corresponding increase in divorces reportedly caused by the pressures of lockdown.
