East China's Shandong province sees a surge in the number of marriage registrations since the new marriage policy was implemented this May. [Photo/SdChina]

Qixi Festival, or Chinese Valentine's Day, which fell on Aug 29 this year, saw a sharp rise in the number of marriage registrations in East China's Shandong province. In Jinan, capital of the province, 1,644 couples registered on that day, 800 more pairs than last year.

Since the new policy was implemented nationwide in May, couples can get married anywhere in the country without having to present their household registration booklets, which facilitates the marriage registration for couples in which, especially, both parties are from another province.

By Aug 28, a total of 271,000 couples had registered their marriage in the province. This year on Qixi Festival, a total of 13,192 marriage registrations were handled in the province, a year-on-year increase of 73.83 percent, a five-year high. There were 337 marriage registrations by couples in which neither party was from Shandong province, an impressive year-on-year increase of 306.02 percent.