How many legal papers might the average Chinese need from cradle to grave? More than 400, says an official study, about a quarter of which are used frequently.

普通中国人一生中需要多少个具有法律效力的证件、证明？一项官方调查显示，答案是400多个，其中常用证件约占1/4。

According to China's E-Government Yearbook (2015), the average Chinese citizen will be issued 103 necessary papers - from birth to death certificates.

根据《中国电子政务年鉴(2015)》，从出生证明到死亡证明，普通中国公民会被签发103个必需的证件、证明。

The focus point of China's document system is the hukou, or household residence permit.

中国的资料系统的焦点就是户口，或称为家庭居住证。

The report said citizens will be requested to produce their hukous an average 37 times during their lifetimes to dozens of bureaus. They will receive around 100 officially sealed documents, yicai.com reported last Tuesday.

调查报告称，办理这103个常用证件、证明，中国公民一生平均需要向几十个部门提交户口簿37次。根据《第一财经网》上周二的报道，公民们需要盖大约100多个章。

Take the case of a man surnamed Yu who, while attempting to purchase a house in Guangzhou, was shuffled¹ back and forth² between agencies due to a lost document.

以一位余姓男子为例，他打算在广州购买房子，但却因为丢失文件而在众多机构之间来回奔波。

Yu said he was first required by authorities to prove he was not married in order to buy his home. Yu was baffled. "What is the point of the certificate?" asked Yu.

余先生表示，一开始他被相关部门要求提供他没有结婚的证明，以此来购买他房子。他对此很困惑并发问道：“这个证明的意义在哪里？”

An elderly couple from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous³ Region ran into a similar situation in Guangzhou when they were co-signing on a home loan for their daughter. Like Yu, the couple was also asked to provide a marriage certificate, which they had lost years earlier.

而来自中国新疆维吾尔族自治区的一对老夫妻在广州也遇到了类似的问题。当时他们正在为女儿购房而签署一份房屋贷款。和余先生一样，这对夫妇也被要求提供结婚证明，但是该证明已遗失多年。

Instead of traveling the 4,000 kilometers back to Xinjiang to have one reissued, the couple of 40 years took advantage of a loophole. Authorities advised them to simply get married again - for a new certificate.

之后，这对结婚40年的老夫妻并没有跋涉4000公里返回新疆重新再办证件，而是利用了一个漏洞。有关部门建议他们二人再简单的结一次婚、再办一次结婚证。