Shanghai divorce certificate bears traditional Chinese character of double happiness.Photo/eastday.com

    BEIJING, Aug. 26 -- Shanghai couples have eased their family tensions by ending unsatisfactory life with their spouses in peaceful ways, according to a newspaper report Thursday.

    The Shanghai Morning Post says that 27,374 couples in the city severed their relationships last year, 75 pairs a day on the average.

    The number marked an increase of 39% from the previous year, the newspaper reports, according to marriage registration offices throughout the 19 districts and counties in Shanghai.

    Statistics cited some common characteristics of divorces in Shanghai.

    One trend is that newlyweds seeking divorce within one year of their marriage took up more than 7% of all the cases. One couple ended their marriage within 14 days in Chongming County.

    Analysts say that newlyweds ended their marriage due to erupting clashes and unstable relationships. Also, the new marriage regulation implemented last October in China makes marriage and devoice easier than before, as the couples require only household registration and identification cards for both marriage and divorce cases.

    Another trend is that young couples end their marriage in different ways from older generations, who have embarrassed and uncomfortable with such situations, seeing terminating marriage as a last result if the family cannot be saved.

    Some young couples even have brought sweets and chocolates to celebrate their divorces. After divorce, the man and the woman often decide to go out for dinner together, says one marriage office personnel, who could not believe their ears.

    The third trend is marriage between a Shanghai man and a woman from outside the city remains stable, with 20 couples divorced in 2004. But marriage with a local Shanghai woman ended with a higher rate of divorce, statistics shows.

    The fourth trend is that the one-night-stand broke up more than one thousand couples in the City last year.

    Experts say that with a relaxing of social pressures on marriage relationshis,p and many choices of social lifestyles and freedom to move, Chinese couples tend to seek a third party for comfort. And, this has often led to family trouble and divorce.

    The fifth trend is the mid-life crisis facing the people aged 31-40, with marriage severing after 11 to 20 years.

    Analysts said that psychological pressure from career and life has gradually led to divorce in some cases among the middle-aged couples.

    To address the increasing rate of divorce in Shanghai, the municipal government has arranged consultants to provide free services on how to seek reconciliation between marital crises. Consultants at the Pudong District marriage registration office, for example, claim that they have successfully convinced 65 couples to keep their marriage since last April.

    Through consulting, couples in crisis are encouraged to give a second thought on how to best handle their marriage relationship, especially in terms of children, amongst other social and economic factors in their life.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)