The 'Supermarket of Love'
Unmarried people in China find their lifetime partners at the 'supermarket of love'.
The I'm Looking For You market in Beijing, opened in November last year, has attracted more than 1,000 clients and successfully matched over 50 couples.
A woman looking at prospective partners
The supermarket - essentially a dating service that offers a venue where singles can meet - only charges a 20 yuan (RM10) registration fee.
Members listed down their names, ages, income and occupation - along with a picture - on their profles which are available for others to view.
They are also asked what they would like in a partner, according to the China Daily.
Clients such as Qu Hui, a 25-year-old teacher, said the supermarket had given her hope to find Mr. Right as well as some much-needed friends.
"I wish I could find my better half. If this doesn't happen, I hope I can meet more friends.
"After all, I am a teacher, so the people that I can meet and socialise with are very limited," she said.
Some clients including government employee Wang Jiaohong were encouraged to sign up to the programme by their mothers who eager to see them get married.
"My ideal woman would be someone whom I can get along with, kind-hearted and a responsible person.
"My mother says the reason why I haven't found her yet is because I'm too picky," said the 35-year-old Wang.
A woman checking out a profile on the 'love market'
Chinese women living in the cities may not have enough time to look for partners but men have more to worry about.
More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses in 2020, state media has reported, citing a study that blamed sex-selective abortions as a major factor.
The study, conducted by the government-backed Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, named the gender imbalance among newborns as the most serious demographic problem faced by the country's 1.3 billion population.
A traditional preference for boys, exacerbated by China's one-child policy, means many expectant parents are willing to pay for illegal ultrasound checks to determine the sex of their baby, and abort a female foetus.
- China Daily
Published Feb 9 2010
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