From Cheongsam to western wedding gown

For just 200 yuan (31 U.S. dollars), brides-to-be can score the Western-style wedding gown of their dreams at the Wedding Dress Mall in the western Beijing neighborhood of Wukesong.This spacious mall is full of hustle, bustle, and 80 stores selling inexpensive wedding gowns that sparkle under bright lights.Many brides-to-be wander in and out of shops, tailed by their husbands-to-be, mothers or friends. They try on many dresses in fan-shaped booths or impromptu dressing rooms created when a shopkeeper holds up swaths of fabric for girls to stand behind.Once they decide which dress to buy, they bargain with the shopkeeper until a deal is struck. Then the dress-often decked out in ruffles, sequins, feathers or all three-is tucked into a giant bag and taken home."I would like to wear a white fluffy dress. It will make me feel like an elegant princess, just like Kate Middleton, the wife of Prince William," said Linda Wang, a 27-year-old bride-to-be from Beijing's suburban Tongzhou District who settled on a dress with a price tag of 500 yuan.Wang said the dresses here look just like big name-brand dresses, but are much more affordable. And, here, buying a dress is even cheaper than renting one, as rentals can run over 1,000 yuan."In other wedding dress shops in Xidan or SOHO in Beijing, the price of a wedding dress soars-from 5,000 yuan to more than 20,000 yuan," she said.