Question for people who have married in China

Hi,

This question is probably in the forum but I don't know where else to ask so hopefully someone who have married in China before can help me.

Here is my situation. Besides being a Canadian, I am also a Hong Kong citizen and have a "Return to China" card which enables me unrestricted access to China. I have entered into China before to visit my girlfriend with no hassle. This time, I went to China to marry my girlfriend and then plan to sponsor her to come to Canada. As with before, I entered into China using my "Return to China" card. However, when we were doing our marriage registration, the Chinese authority looked at my Canadian passport and said they cannot do our registration because my Canadian passport does not show that I entered into China. I told them that I entered into China using that card and they told me that I should marry as a Hong Kong citizen; which I do not want since I want to apply my fiance to Canada. I was told if I want to marry as a Canadian then I must enter into China using my Canadian passport.

As such, I am now applying for a China visitor visa even though I am still in China. Once my visitor visa is approved, I plan to quickly exit out of China into Hong Kong and then re-enter China using my Canadian passport so that my passport will have an entry stamp into China. So if I have this stamp on my passport and proof of single status, does anyone know if I have met all the necessary requirements to marry in China or are there other processes I have to go through?

Thank you in advance for any responses.