The growing number of couples who divorce to get around regulations and official restrictions and then remarry has pushed up the divorce rate in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, an official has revealed.

The practice is known as "false divorce" or "technical divorce".

A total of 11,584 couples divorced in the first half of the year, according to the city's bureau of civil affairs. About 30 percent of the couples later remarried, the official from the bureau said.