The coastal city of Sanya is not only a popular holiday destination but also somewhere couples are heading to get married with their friends and families.

The city's most renowned romantic spot, Tianya Haijiao, which translates as "the edge of the sea and the rim of the sky", held an international wedding festival that finished on Dec 16.

Tianya Haijiao is a popular place for couples to take their vows as it fits with the Chinese saying "lovers cannot be separated even when one is at the end of the earth".

The five-day festival featured forums, conferences and a range of wedding shows.

Sanya has hosted the festival for 18 years and every December welcomes industry insiders and lovers from around the country who are looking for a warm, winter wedding.

This year the festival focused on weddings as an industry and covered issues including regional cooperation, further industrialization and marketing innovation, according to local officials.

The city government also hosted a wedding expo on Dec 14. Representatives from luxury hotels, major wedding planning companies and industry associations from around the world gathered in the city to seek business opportunities.

Exhibitors included restaurants, wedding photography and planning agencies, as well as travel agencies.

More than 200 business groups from 20 provinces attended trading fairs and forums at the expo.

During the expo's opening ceremony, Yue Jin, deputy mayor of Sanya, said that the expo was part of the city's endeavors to further regulate and industrialize the wedding industry.

"The expo will help promote Sanya as a popular wedding destination and is also a way to better understand consumer needs," said Yue. Yue added that in the future the city would develop wedding travel as a new tourism brand and a new appeal to tourists around the country.

According to official statistics, revenue generated by the wedding market has grown rapidly since 2012. The booming market has attracted major wedding service companies in the country, which formed an industrial chain in Sanya to help make it one of the country's top wedding destinations.

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(China Daily USA 12/26/2014 page10)