Colombo hosts Chinese mass wedding

Fifty couples from China tied the knot in Colombo on Sunday (17) in a mass traditional Buddhist wedding ceremony, as the island aims to woo more tourists. The couples included newly-weds as well as already-married couples looking to renew their vows, officials said. Some were dressed in the traditional attire of Sri Lanka’s mountainous central region while others wore Chinese or Western clothes at the ceremony. The number of Chinese tourists coming to Sri Lanka has risen, with the group now accounting for around 13% of the two million tourists that visit the country each year, second only to Indian visitors, official data shows. -Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe , Reuters and AFP