Westernized Chinese wedding photographer 2010.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 2.68 million couples ended their marriage during 2010, up 8.5 percent over 2009.

This included 2.01 million couples who filed for divorce, an increase of 11.5 percent over 2009, and 668,000 couples who separated via court sanction.

The number of divorces has been steadily rising in the past five years. However, marriages also increased in 2010, reaching 12.4 million, up two percent in 2009.

China's civil affairs organizations have dealt with more than 465,000 cases of divorce in the first quarter of this year, an average of over 5,000 per day.

According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs posted on its website, the number of divorces in the first three months increased 17.1 percent year-on-year.

"Marriage in China has entered a phase of uncertainty," Chen Yijun, an expert of sociology in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying in Thursday's People's Daily.

Less communication between husbands and wives and increasing extramarital affairs are the big killers of marriage, said Chen.

Chinese men and women are becoming increasingly independent in terms of personality and finance, he said.