Marriage consultant emerging as new occupation in China – Xinhua

From Xinhua News Agency:

Marriage consultants appear as a promising new occupation in China, as more married couples face problems and need professional guidance.

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. [Full Text]