News of the divorce of a top South Korean celebrity couple is drawing keen interest in China.

Actors Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo were famous among Chinese fans as the "Song-Song" couple and news of their divorce trended online in China as the number one searched word from early Thursday.

As of 2 p.m., related articles to their divorce have been viewed more than one-point-six billion times on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging service, generating over 460-thousand response postings.

Local media outlets have also published statements issued by the couple's respective management agencies, translated into Chinese.

The couple first met on the set of the KBS drama "Descendants of the Sun" and developed a romantic relationship and eventually tied the knot.

Chinese media illegally aired their wedding ceremony in 2017 using drones even when a ban was placed on Korean cultural content by Beijing.