The information was released by the All-China Women's Federation recently. The Federation has opened training classes on marriage consultation in Beijing since May, aiming to spread professional knowledge to would-be consultants.

    Statistics issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed that since 2002, China's divorce rate has been on rise for four years running. In 2005, 1.78 million Chinese couples divorced, 120,000 pairs more than in the previous year.

    Compared with rising divorce rate, the number of registered marriages declined. In 2005, 8,231,000 couples got married, 441,000 couples less than the previous year's figure.

    Sources from the All-China Women's Federation said marriage consultants should be well versed not only in psychological knowledge, but also in the Marriage Law, marriage culture and education on children in divorced families.

    "Mediating couples for unity not for departing " is an time-honored tradition, but not necessarily the sole principle for marriage consultants. They are required to give couples professional suggestions based on some scientific tests, such as character analysis, anxiety index test and marriage relationship test.

    They should also provide couples with legal knowledge on property division and children fosterage if the couples decide to get divorced.

    Nowadays, the per hour marriage consultation charge range from 300 yuan (37.5 U.S. dollars) to 800 yuan (100 dollars) in China. Enditem