A 14-year-old girl in north China's Ningxia autonomous region was forced by her family to marry a stranger after her parents received a 250,000 yuan betrothal gift from the groom's family.
The teenager, surnamed Yang, called the police on the wedding day and authorities stepped in to cancel the illegal betrothal, according to a statement from the justice department in the city of Zhongwei.
In China, it is illegal for men younger than 22 to get married and, for women, the age is 20. Yang would be entering grade 8 of her 9-year compulsory education in China. The age of the groom, surnamed Li, was not made public.
Yang had never met the man, and the marriage had been organised without the girl's consent, the government statement said.
The 250,000 yuan dowry would have been over eight times more than the average annual income for urban residents in the county.
After the wedding was broken up, members of both families were taken to the police station, where they reportedly quarrelled about how to handle the bride payment.
After six rounds of negotiations mediated by the officials, the Yang family was ordered to return home with their daughter and reimburse all of the dowry money to the Li family.
