Divorce rates in Shanghai, China's largest city, have soared 30 per cent during the first nine months of this year, a report said on Thursday.

Till September, over 20,000 divorces had taken place in the city, with one couple demanding divorce the day they got married.

The city had recently introduced a new marriage registration policy, which makes divorce "fast and easy." However, officials from the Marriage Administration Office of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau denied any connection between the soaring divorce rate and the new policy.

"Many divorcing couples come to us unyielding in their determination to go their separate ways. They would divorce anyway under the old system, under which the process took a month," Chief of the Marriage Administration Office Zhou Jixiang said.

Under the new policy, if both parties desire divorce, and if appropriate arrangements have been made for the care of any children and the allocation of property, divorce certificates can be issued for 10 yuan (about Rs 60) at a district marriage registration office.

Before the new policy took effect on October 1, 2003, divorcing couples were required to obtain certification letters from their work places and household communities. Now all that is required is the presentation of identity cards and household registration books.

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The most-cited reasons for divorce are incompatible personalities and long-term separation. For every 1,000 couples in Shanghai, there are five divorces, according to official statistics.