SANYA /China/, October 14. /TASS/. The 26th Hainan International Wedding Festival Tianya Haijiao will be held in Sanya city (Hainan province, South China) from December 11 to 13. This was reported by the Hainan Daily newspaper.
The festival will be traditionally held in the city's Tianya Haijiao (The edges of heaven, corners of the sea) coastal park of the same name. The event also features a group marriage ceremony, with hundreds of couples who take the oath of love and fidelity and participate in a mass wedding photo shoot at the park year after year.
According to Hainan Daily, this year the event's organizers will invite at least 20 couples, where the partners are medical workers and volunteers who have helped Hainan province fight the coronavirus. An outbreak of the disease was recorded on the island in August this year with the total number of cases in the region exceeding 20 thousand while over 12 thousand patients carried the disease in an asymptomatic form.
The publication notes that a number of thematic events including forums, conferences and wedding fashion shows will be held during the festival.
The Tianya Haijiao International Wedding Festival has been held in Sanya since 1996. The event is organized with the support of the city's Department of Tourism, Culture, Broadcasting and Sports.
By 2025, the authorities intend to turn Hainan into an "international center of tourism and consumption." The Chinese island is often called the "Oriental Hawaii" - the natural scenery, tropical forests, a developed network of hotels, combined with beaches and a coastline of over 1.9 thousand kilometers long attract visitors from the farthest corners of the world. In 2021 about 81 million tourists visited the island - 25.5% more than the year before.