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Marriage is often compared to navigating a river, with periods of idyllic calm broken by raging rapids, but 100 Chinese couples will literally start their married lives this way next month.

The newly-weds from around China will celebrate their wedding ceremony by drifting down the Wanquanhe River near Qionghai City, south China's Hainan Province, over the national May Day holiday week from May 1 to 5.

"There will be a grand collective wedding ceremony near the Wanquanhe River first," said an official responsible for the project. "After that, the newly-weds will begin a 15-kilometer scenic trip down the river.

"They will experience rapids as well as slow flows on their way, which signifies that the new couples must jointly face the ups and downs in their lives," said the official.

He said such "ecological" collective wedding ceremonies would be staged every May on the river starting from this year.

Some 40,000 people experienced drifting down the Wanquanhe river in Qionghai last year, putting it sixth in popularity among the 60-strong drifting attractions in China. City officials expect it to draw more tourists and take the first place.

A famous tourist city in China which is also the permanent conference site for the influential Bo'ao Forum for Asia (BFA), Qionghai received a total of 1.6 million tourists last year.