Laureate's nuptials a wedding for the ages

Octogenarian Nobel laureate Yang Chen-ning yesterday married his 28-year-old graduate student girlfriend in his home town of Shantou, Guangdong.

Professor Yang, 82, who in 1957 became the first Chinese national to win a Nobel Prize in physics, went to the civil affairs bureau in Shantou with his fiancee, Weng Fan , family members and friends and completed their marriage registration.

The couple were expected to take their honeymoon trip soon and then hold a wedding ceremony in Beijing. Professor Yang told Beijing News earlier he would have a second wedding in Hong Kong next month to introduce his young bride to his friends in the city.

The couple flew to Shantou from Beijing on Thursday.

They had planned to register their marriage in Beijing but the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau said they must register in Shantou since the bride was a permanent resident there.

Professor Yang spent most of his career in the US but returned to China at the end of last year after the death of his first wife. He was lured out of retirement to teach at Beijing's Tsinghua University.