MANY couples rushed to tie the knot last week in China. They wanted to commemorate their special day just as China celebrated the 100th birthday of its ruling party, Communist Party of China.
A bride from Beijing said she chose July 1 to register her marriage for long lasting relationship.
“Hope our love would last 100 years, just like today’s celebrations,” Shasha Liu told the local media last Thursday.
It was the day to mark the 100-year formation of the CPC, the sole political party in power that had led the country to become a moderately prosperous society.
Marriage registration offices across China recorded a higher number of couples getting hitched last week.
A Civil Affairs Bureau worker in Jinan city of east China’s Shandong province revealed that they received more than 30 couples in the morning alone.
“I could see that many of them are party members as they were wearing a party emblem on their clothes,” she told the Global Times, but did not reveal the average daily number of couples who had visited the place.
At Baoshan district of Shanghai, a long line of people waited with excitement to start their new life.
“My girlfriend and I are both party members, so we thought this would be a unique way for us to mark this special day and also for the country,” a man, who only wished to be known as Bai, said.
At a hospital in Zhengzhou of central China’s Henan province, a couple in their 80s sang songs along with other patients and medical staff as they celebrated their 50th marriage anniversary.
The pair made the hospital ward their home after the man was admitted for Alzheimer’s several years ago.
“It has been 10 years since he has the disease.
“Even if he has forgotten about everything, I will continue to be by his side,” said the wife as she leaned on her husband.
Identified only as Li, she said their children were busy making ends meet and could not take care of them.
Stamp collectors across the nation got into a frenzy purchase of commemorative stamps and envelopes issued by China Post to commemorate the occasion.
The set of 20 stamps and envelopes reveal the 100-year journey of CPC.
The stamps use red and gold as the main tones while the envelopes contain patterns of the party emblem, Great Wall and a golden inscription of Chinese characters saying “Staying true to our original aspiration and founding mission”, Global Times reported.
A long queue of people formed outside a post office in Shanghai as early as 6.30am.
Among them was 66-year-old Yang Chaode, who travelled 4,000km from Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
He had waited for the launch since the day before.
“My friends in Xinjiang are waiting for me to send the letters to them, with the postmark in Shanghai, the birthplace of CPC,” Yang added.
In Wuhan, public bus driver Nie Sanhua cleaned up his vehicle in the early morning before decorated the interior with stickers, posters, party flag and other paraphernalia related to the celebration.
The CPC, founded on July 1, 1921, with just 50-odd members has grown with more than 95 million members.
The formation of the party was proclaimed in front of 12 people onboard a boat at a lake in Zhejiang province.
For decades, the CPC was in the dark on its founding date as there were hardly any records about its formation.
So, the party declared July 1 as its established date in 1941.
In the 1980s, more information was gathered with the findings of more documented records.
Today, a replica of the boat – known as the Red Boat – is parked at the Nanhu Lake, about 100km from Shanghai, to commemorate the event.
In Chinese, the top party leader is known as zong shuji which means clerk or secretary.
The term – the lowest among the official positions – was adopted to show the party’s determination to serve the people and stand alongside with them.
Nanhu Lake has become a popular tourist spot visited by nearly nine million travellers annually following a boost of “red tourism”in recent years.
Red tourism refers to sites with historical and cultural significant to the CPC.
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