Lavish wedding bucks frugality

An extravagant wedding in Tangshan, Hebei province, has set tongues wagging amid a national campaign promoting frugality.

Photos of the million-dollar wedding spread online, showing a cavalcade of 30 Rolls-Royce Phantoms, a bright red Ferrari, a convoy of eight luxury motorcycles and a few Bentleys leaving the bride's home in Ligeguang village, Tangshan, last Sunday.

Dozens of celebrities were reportedly present at the wedding ceremony, including one of China's most popular TV hostesses, Li Xiang.

The reception occupied four floors of a high-end hotel in Tangshan, with each table costing 9,999 yuan ($1,630).

Gift money for the new couple ranged from several hundred yuan to more than 100,000 yuan.

Bai Yanchun, the bride's father, is head of the village's governing committee, and the bridegroom's father is a well-known businessman in the area.

The luxury wedding raised speculation about whether it had violated the current austerity movement launched by the central leadership.

In December 2012, the CPC Central Committee issued the "eight-point rules", requiring government officials to strictly practice frugality and clean up undesirable work styles, including formalism and extravagance.

CPC rules state that Party officials should "keep a low profile" in organizing family events and are banned from accepting gifts of money from non-relatives.

A central China university official was punished in September for accepting money at his son's wedding banquet, a practice frowned upon under the continuing anti-corruption campaign.

Xiao Hong, professor and former Party secretary at Wuhan University of Technology's School of Online Education, was given a warning and ordered to return the 25,000 yuan stuffed in red envelopes at the event in May last year.

In October, Ma Linxiang, a deputy village chief in Beijing, was sacked after he splashed out 1.6 million yuan on a three-day wedding fiesta for his son. He hosted an estimated 250-table wedding at a convention center that was part of the main 2008 Beijing Olympics venue.

Yu Beibei, a Tangshan resident, said there is a huge income gap in the city.

"Rich people in the city have to find ways to spend money, but some people are in extreme poverty. I am wondering how rich people can accumulate so much wealth."

Hua Shang Daily reported that Bai's home occupies an area of 2,200 square meters, exceeding the 200 square meters for rural house construction regulated by Hebei province.

Villagers said Bai's family runs a dozen businesses covering sectors from coal mine exploration to foreign trade.

Contact the writers at zhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn and zhang_yi@chinadaily.com.cn