It's not thought, but cash, that counts

A crucial part of a modern Chinese wedding obliges guests to hand over money.

The National Day golden week is a golden time for weddings. Chinese often rely on a special calendar to find out the auspicious days for certain ceremonies such as weddings, but a seven-day holiday has got to be doubly propitious when everyone has plenty of spare time and the weather is at its seasonable best. I, for one, ran into a dozen new couples taking photos for wedding albums on just one trip to a park.

However, if you receive a dozen wedding invitations, you may not count your blessings. Instead, you need to count the bills in your wallet. You may have to shell out as much as a month's salary just to be in attendance. According to one media survey, up to 80 percent of Beijing residents were invited to at least one wedding during the recent golden week, and they all had to give a red envelope containing some cash in lieu of a wedding present.