Hi Joey
I was married last month in Fujian province,in the capitol Fuzhou .
Ill tell you of my experience
I got my cert of no impediment from our local registry office after the statutory 21 days display there,I actually used a company in london to get the legalisation at the FCO ,and the authorisation at the chinese embassy.whilst they were at it i let them get my visa too,very professional and quick too,the cert was back in 4 days.In previous visa applications i too have used the Manchester Embassy when i used the express same day service for an extra £20,saved going back the next day.but i understand they have moved the visa application section to another premise in manchester and no longer do the same day express service.I assume your in the north of england using the Manchester Embassy,im in Huddersfield just 40 mins away.
Anyhow i did email Lin Fang both sides of my cert ,which she copied and took along to the marriage office in Fuzhou,and this was all they needed on my part to marry.I did take my decree absolute along with a self certified single certificate ,which i got signed by a solicitor friend locally for a fiver (actually he said i owed him a couple of beers
)but i beleive a fiver is the norm.
They wanted photo copies of our relevant passport pages,i paid 200 rmb and we were told to return next day with 3 pics of us together,one for each red book and one for their records,they were not interested in my decree or single cert ,but as the other guys say things do differ from province to province and forearmed is forewarned, they didnt want any translation done of the cert of no impediment ,they actually kept it for the records and we didnt take any oaths or have to swear on anything either.
We went to a local digital photo shop and had the pics done that afternoon,30 rmb inc the guy to photoshop a red background onto the pics,next morning we returned they printed out the red books stuck in our pics ,i paid 9 rmb for the books and we were married simple as that !!
I trust this help Joey,if you want any further help feel free to PM me ,and leave your number if you want a chat sometime OK
cheers
Mike