Registry offices in Jiangsu open for witnesses on Saturday

In cities in eastern China's Jiangsu province, registry offices will keep their doors open this Qixi Festival, which is also known as Chinese Valentine's Day and falls on a Saturday, to help couples seal their love with an official union.

The Qixi Festival, which celebrates the legendary annual union of the mythological figures – the cowherd and the weaver – takes place on the seventh day of every seventh month in the Chinese lunar calendar.

In Jiangsu, couples can register their marriage online two to thirty days in advance. As of 6 p.m. on Wednesday, around 8,000 appointments had already been made for Saturday at 115 registry offices across the province, and all spots were filled.

For this reason, many practices offer both online and on-site registration, allowing couples who were unable to get an online appointment to make their love official on this special day.

“To ensure the smooth running of all scheduled appointments, we have made some preparations, such as opening a pre-screening channel, notifying applicants in advance and checking marriage certificates,” said Wang Hui, deputy head of the registry office in Guangling district of Yangzhou city in the province.

In some registry offices, in addition to regular church services, special activities are held where gifts are given to the newlyweds and best wishes are conveyed.

Registry offices in Jiangsu open for witnesses on Saturday

A trained embroidery artist from Daye County in central China's Hubei Province has revived the traditional art through online and offline training programs, enabling many local residents to practice the craft and secure jobs and even start their own businesses.

Liu Xiaohong, a trained embroidery artist, began learning traditional Daye embroidery – a recognized intangible cultural heritage of the province in southeastern Hubei – from her grandmother at the age of twelve.

Daye embroidery is traditionally used in everyday clothing. It caught Liu's attention over 20 years ago during a trip to Beijing, where she discovered that embroidery could command surprisingly high prices, prompting her to reassess the modern value of this ancient craft.

“I took my embroidery to a market in Huangshi. At that time, a piece could fetch several hundred yuan. And a folding screen could fetch up to 800 yuan (about $117), which inspired me a lot,” Liu said.

Liu was bold and developed four new embroidery techniques. Her works have won awards at national and regional embroidery competitions. In recent years, she founded an online brand that incorporates popular trends into embroidered products and gained over 300,000 followers on online platforms by uploading free instructional videos.

“Through online platforms, our annual sales revenue has reached nearly 2 million yuan (about $280,000),” Liu said.

To help more people make a living from embroidery, the local government supported Liu in establishing a craft school, which has trained over 10,000 students so far. Thanks to the promotion of Liu's embroidery brand, over 2,000 women in Daye City have either found employment or started their own small business through embroidery.

Chinese embroidery artist contributes to increasing income in Hubei