China's sweet business

BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Weiwei is full of excitement. She's just saved more than 14,000 yuan (2,059 U.S. dollars) on her wedding photos.

"This is really a good deal and I'm very happy with the price," says Zhang, a 26-year-old bank clerk, whose wedding is scheduled in May.

The deal, originally 23,000 yuan for a set of wedding photos, including 160 pictures, two albums of 35 pictures each and six sets of costumes, from traditional attire to modern gowns, is discounted at 63 percent off at the price of 8,888 yuan at the Beijing 2010 Spring Wedding Expo. She will spend a whole day in the studio and another day out shooting.

People like Zhang are the target consumers of such wedding expos. More than 10 wedding expos have been or will be held in major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing and Hangzhou in March. The expos usually provide everything related to weddings: photos, planning services, banquets, jewelry, gowns and cars.

The wedding expo in Nanjing concluded last week with contracts worth 200 million yuan signed.

"The expo has made it convenient for us, it's a one-stop for all,” Zhang says. She also bought a 0.70 carat diamond ring for 12,888 yuan.

"The next 10 years will see a boom in weddings," says Shi Kangning, general secretary of the Committee of Wedding Service Industries of China Association of Social Workers. "People who were born in the 1980s have entered the marriage age."

China experienced a third baby boom after the government in 1984 adjusted its one-child policy to allow people in rural areas to have a second child if their first was a girl, combined with the fact that those who were born in the mid 60s to mid 70s got married and had a child in the 1980s.

"In the next 10 years, there will at least be 12 million couples getting married each year, a period that we call 'the sweet goldmine'," Shi explains.

Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that more than 11 million couples registered marriages last year, a 9 percent growth from more than 10 million couples in 2008.