Changing nuptial customs featured in folk museum

A visitor looks at marriage certificates from different periods at the Museum of Folk Marriage Traditions.

The Museum of Folk Marriage Traditions in ancient town of Fengjing in Jinshan District opened last November free of charge.

Located near the 700-year-old Zhihe Bridge, the museum exhibits more than 600 folk marriage items from the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the early 1990s.

The 400-square-meter museum features bridal sedan chairs, intricately carved wedding beds, camphorwood chests, red stools containing chamber pots (matong Âíí°), elaborately embroidered wedding gowns and marriage certificates and divorce papers dating back a hundred years.

All the items were donated by Jinshan local Miu Shifang.

Walking into the museum is like walking into a traditional wedding hall decorated in red and gold. It's furnished with two hardwood armchairs, a big square table, a bridal sedan chair and a 100-year-old bed from the late Ming Dynasty.

"A bed like this took a carpenter three years to complete," says museum designer Shen Liang. The bed is fashioned like small chamber with three doors.

"Ancient Chinese believed that this design and doors could keep people's energy gathered and flowing in the bedroom," says Shen.

Walking further, visitors can see the old wedding gowns and shoes, all beautifully embroidered and unbelievably small.

In old China, women who did not work in the fields were expected to have tiny, bound feet. A woman was not considered marriageable without small feet. The smaller the better, they forced women to walk mincingly with many quick, little steps.

Various marriage and divorce certificates are displayed, including a 1950 marriage certificate embroidered with silk.

From wooden chests and night-stools to bicycles and TV sets, visitors can see the country's development through the trappings of marriage.

Four bills calculating wedding costs show that in the 1970s, a wedding only cost around 600 yuan, including three "must-have" things that go round — a bicycle, a sewing machine and a wristwatch. In the 1980s, the three must-haves were a fridge, a TV set and a washing machine, all costing around 3,000 yuan.

In the 1990s, a wedding cost around 30,000 yuan, including rental for four Santana sedans for the wedding party.

Today, the cost of a marriage is easily 2 million yuan, since it typically includes an apartment for the couple and a car.

Old bicycles, wristwatches and an old bottle of Moutai liquor to celebrate are on display.

Address: Fengjing Old Town

How to get there:

• By car: Take G60 (Shanghai-Hangzhou Expressway), exit at Fengjing. Follow the signs for two minutes to the town's parking lot.

• By bus: Take Metro Line 1 and get off at Jinjiang Park Station. Take shuttle bus Fengjing Line (Fengjing-Meilong) at the transit hub near the Metro station. The drive to the town takes 45 minutes.