Today is Valentine’s Day, which also in China is gaining more importance. Many couples send each other cards, flowers and chocolates (I just finished a small of box of Belgian chocolates, thanks Qi!), and of course many restaurants will be fully booked today. My wife and I plan to go to Finestre tonight for a romantic dinner. It will be so busy there that we had to choose to either dine at 6:30 PM or at 9 PM. Of course we chose the latter time, which allows us to have a drink somewhere in advance, and we would not have to hurry to be on time.

Valentine’s day also seems to be a good day to get married. According to the Shanghai Daily there will be 3 times as many people that tie the knot today than on a normal day. The ‘Shanghai Marriage Management Division’ even started work at 7:30 AM instead of 8 AM to reduce waiting lines for couples (can you imagine waiting in line for hours to get married?). Luckily marrying in China does not take much time, normally you can finish the whole procedure in less than 10 minutes. And if you cannot make it today you don’t have to wait a whole year: China also has its own Valentine’s Day on the 7th day of the 7th month on the Lunar Calendar (this year on August 19), where you will have another chance.