To encourage more young couples to take the test, the Beijing health bureau has provided free checkups for residents since 2009. With Beijing hukou - the permanent residence permit - couples can get the checkup in any of the 19 clinics or hospitals in the city that provide it.
A number of other cities and provincial areas also provide free premarital examinations. Wuhan, in Hubei province, has done so since 2008 and Dalian in Liaoning province started in 2007.
The rate of premarital checkups has risen as a result of the policy, but many people still mistakenly believe that a prepregnancy test plays the same role as the premarital checkup.
"My husband and I undertook the prepregnancy physical checkup and it has even more items than the premarital checkup," said Xu Fang, who refused to have a premarital checkup because of her conviction that marriage is about love not health.
Xu said the free health check provided by the State-run institution where she works guarantees her basic health. "Checkups relating to fertility can be left for the prepregnancy test," said Xu, who underwent the test three months before she became pregnant. She gave birth to a boy in November 2011.
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