When Robert McClymond first arrived in Guilin, southern China, in 2008, he said he was surprised to find people behaving just like someone might in any US city.

Back then, he was in his 50s and had just come out of a 20-year marriage. He had traveled to China to see Li Zhen, a Chinese woman he met through an online dating website.

"Before I arrived, I wasn't sure what to expect," he said. "There were so many rumors and misconceptions about China in the US"

The American eventually made Li his wife in 2009, and the couple plans to move to China from San Jose, California, when McClymond retires from his job in Silicon Valley in six years.

The lovebirds were one of 47,000 couples comprising a Chinese mainlander and a foreign national - including overseas Chinese and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents - who registered their marriages in China in 2009, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. That figure had risen to 55,000 by 2013, when Yang Lidan and Benjamin Friedman got married in northern Hebei province.

Yang, now an editor at a publishing company in Beijing, met her husband shortly after he arrived to teach at an international school in 2011. She said marrying an American had also corrected her misconceptions about the US

She had previously believed that American families tended to be distant with each other.

"Ben has a large family and they're all very close. Everyone speaks freely during get-togethers. All I have felt is love and tolerance," she said.

In December, China and the US extended the visas for each other's citizens to a maximum of 10 years, which has been a boon for couples like McClymond and Li.

"It has made life easier," said McClymond. Although he spends most of his time in San Jose, he said his mother and brother now live in Li's home in Guilin.

(China Daily USA 09/23/2015 page8)