Chinese authorities have ended the practice of requiring manual marriage registration by setting up a national network and database for marriage registration covering all 31 provincial-level regions around the end of June this year.

A local marriage network and database has also been set up in each provincial-level region to offer online marriage registration and verify individuals' marital status based on national data.

Civil affairs authorities were working to update data for the national network, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced on July 24.

The ministry plans to exchange and share marital information with foreign affairs departments and relevant agencies in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in the future in order to set up a national marital status database for all of the country's citizens.