Fengjing, the canal town in Shanghai’s Jinshan District, is recruiting twenty couples for the twentieth edition of its Wu-Yue Corner water town wedding, set for September 26 and 27, with the main ceremony on the evening of the twenty-sixth. Couples marry in old-style dress and follow a traditional ceremony, and the organizers bill the event as a way to put Jiangnan water-town culture at the center of a program that folds culture, commerce, tourism, sport, exhibitions and agriculture together. It is also one of the headline items in this year’s Shanghai Tourism Festival, whose classic-activities season runs to more than 170 events across six themes.
Eligibility is broad. Couples who have already registered their marriage or plan to do so shortly can apply, provided both meet the legal conditions, are in good health, are willing to take part and accept a civilized approach to wedding customs, and can follow the organizers’ arrangements. The fee is 3,888 yuan per couple, and registration runs through an official QR code, after which the organizing committee reviews the entries and contacts applicants directly.
What couples get for that fee is unusually concrete. Each pair receives one night in a star-rated hotel in Fengjing, professional photography and videography including behind-the-scenes stills and a fast-cut event film, a banquet at the “Number One Table Under Heaven” serving Fengjing water-town dishes, and a lifetime free-entry certificate for the Fengjing scenic area. Added to that are tickets to Legoland Shanghai, the City Beach music and fireworks show, and a beer night.
The framing this year leans harder into the Song dynasty. The recruitment copy runs under the theme “A Date Kept, Following Song Rites” and invites couples with an eye for an Eastern wedding to come to the water town for a ceremony steeped in Song manners. The ceremony is staged against the town’s bridges and canals, with the sound of oars and the white walls and dark tiles of the old houses providing the setting rather than a hotel ballroom. The full ritual sequence runs over two days, with the formal ceremony on the evening of September 26 and the remaining program on September 27.
Song wedding practice is a useful reference point for what the couples will be walking through. The classical procedure is organized around the three letters and six rites, a sequence of betrothal and wedding steps that includes the exchange of documents, the presentation of gifts and the selection of an auspicious date. The ceremony itself traditionally includes the washing of hands before the offering, the shared meal in which bride and groom eat from the same vessel, the sharing of a cup of wine, and the binding of a lock of each partner’s hair as a symbol of union. A modern water-town ceremony compresses that sequence, but the gestures remain the recognizable core.
Fengjing’s wedding has run long enough to become one of the town’s signature cultural events. Organizers say this edition keeps the traditional Jiangnan flavor while sharpening the Song-era expression, so that the two days read as a single classical ceremony carried out in a working water town rather than a themed performance.
