Yunnan Province will hold its third provincial collective wedding series on August 18-19, 2026, timed to the Qixi Festival — the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, which falls on August 19 this year — according to the Yunnan Provincial Department of Civil Affairs. Under the theme “A Life Called Yunnan — Rites of the Cloud, Romance of Colorful Clouds,” all 16 prefectures of the province will stage collective weddings on Qixi day itself, with the main venue in Mile City, Honghe Prefecture, and each other prefecture running one secondary venue at its park-style marriage registration service point.
The event is jointly organized by nine provincial departments: the Department of Civil Affairs, the Higher People’s Court, the Publicity Department of the Provincial Party Committee (Provincial Spiritual Civilization Office), the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Department of Culture and Tourism, the Federation of Trade Unions, the Communist Youth League and the Women’s Federation. The notice was issued on July 24, 2026. The goal is to deepen wedding-custom reform and promote fine traditional Chinese marriage culture, guiding young couples toward new-style, simplified weddings and pushing back against high bride prices, lavish ceremonies and vulgar wedding pranks. Organizers are asked to adapt to local conditions, with displays of traditional wedding customs, pre-marital counseling and family-values classes, integrating fine traditional culture into modern civilized weddings; in ethnic-minority areas, local characteristics should be fully showcased to highlight the unique charm of Yunnan’s minority cultures. Clothing, makeup and photography services for couples are provided free of charge throughout the event.
At the main venue in Mile City, the 2026 edition — “A Life Called Yunnan · Rites of the Cloud, Romance of Colorful Clouds” · Yunnan 3rd Provincial Collective Wedding · Destiny Tied in Honghe — is recruiting 66 couples from across the province, with registration running from July 21 to August 11. Eligible couples are those who completed marriage registration between the 2025 Qixi (August 29) and August 10, 2026, without yet holding a wedding, or couples who plan to register at the main venue on Qixi day, August 19, 2026. The event takes place August 18-19 at the Dongfengyun scenic area in Mile. On August 18, the program features an evening tour performance, lucky draws, a couple showcase and a drone show; on August 19, a collective wedding ceremony, certificate ceremony and display of ethnic wedding customs.
Couples at the Mile main venue receive a full free package: lodging on August 18 at the MGallery hotel in Dongfengyun, makeup and styling, wedding attire (Honghe minority costumes are provided, and couples may bring their own ethnic or traditional Chinese dress), and a souvenir gift set; dinner on August 18 and breakfast on August 19; and on August 18 a pickup point at Mile’s high-speed rail station, with a “happiness bus” shuttling couples to Dongfengyun. Participating couples may also visit Keyi Town, Jinping Mountain, Taiping Lake Forest Town and the Yunnan Red Wine Estate free of charge from August 18 to 23 (first-ticket only; secondary attractions inside are excluded). The registration hotline is 13529286037.
Secondary venues across the prefectures are recruiting in parallel. The Kunming venue, held August 19 at the Stone Forest scenic area under the theme “Poetry as the Oath, Stone as the Witness” — drawing on the Ashima epic’s millennium-old narrative poem — is recruiting 100 couples worldwide, fully free, with free entry to the 5A-rated Stone Forest on August 19, free makeup, styling and costumes, free shuttle rides on the scenic sightseeing buses, a souvenir gift set (a digital photo album plus a Yi-style wedding gift), dedicated photography, dinner on August 18 and lunch on August 19, and free lodging on August 18 for couples from outside the county; registration runs August 1-18 and the hotline is 0871-67746839. The Dali venue is held at the Xiaohuotangshui · Tianshengqiao national AAAA scenic area, recruiting 30 couples with free hotel, styling and follow-shoot services. The Mengzi venue will stage a guofeng certificate collective wedding, “Qixi Auspicious Moment · Love Settled in Mengzi,” on the outdoor lawn of the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway cafe, limited to 10 couples, with free Hanfu and phoenix-crown veil styling and touch-up kits; couples can DIY three guofeng keepsakes — a brocade round fan, a pair of brocade matching combs and an antique pearl hairpin — and take part in a traditional collective oath ceremony with the marriage certificate, plus four Qixi interaction games: threading needles, guofeng pitch-pot, couple Q&A and red-thread fate matching.
Covering all 16 prefectures, from the Dongfengyun scenic area to the karst wonder of Stone Forest, and from Tianshengqiao in Dali to Mengzi’s century-old Yunnan-Vietnam Railway cafe, the third provincial collective wedding gives each locale its own regional flavor of Chinese romance — one of the largest provincial Qixi collective-wedding campaigns this year.