Love was in the air in Beijing on Sunday when more than 50 performance groups and over 100 young couples from 52 countries and the 56 Chinese ethnic groups acted out their different traditional wedding ceremonies.

Over 200,000 people crowded Ping'an Avenue to see the ceremonies performed by nearly 3,000 folk artists from the United States, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Canada, Russia, and Japan among other countries.

Zha Yuhua and Zou Liangying, a newly-married couple of Bouyei nationality, from southwest China's Guizhou Province, spent over two days preparing for the parade.

"I feel so excited and I would like to say thanks to Beijing as it offered such a wonderful and unforgettable wedding ceremony to my wife and I," said Zha Yuhua, the groom.

"It is really an eye-opening experience for me to see so many different exotic wedding customs," the bride Zou Liangying added.

With the theme "Beijing's tomorrow is more beautiful", the parade was a key feature of the Sixth Beijing International Cultural and Tourism Festival, which opened Friday.

Liu Qi, secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Beijing Municipal Committee, Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi, Wang Qishan, Acting Mayor of Beijing, and Francesco Frangialli, secretary-general of World Tourism Organization, also presented the opening ceremony of the parade and watched the show.

The four-day festival is sponsored by the National Tourism Administration and the Beijing municipal government.

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