Buy a house first to marry in China

Beijing: Marrying in China seems to have turned a Herculean task for the male fraternity with majority of the women viewing ownership of an apartment as a pre-condition to marriage, a survey has found.

In a survey, conducted on the status of marriage and relationships in China, nearly 70 percent of the women interviewed regard having an apartment as a pre-requisite for men to ask for marriage, China Daily quoted a media report as saying. The survey of 50,383 women was released jointly by the Committee of Matchmaking Service Industries of the China Association of Social Workers and baihe.com, a matchmaking service provider. The survey also showed that 80 percent of the single women believe only men who make more than 4,000 yuan (over $630) a month deserve to have a relationship with a woman. It also revealed that 24.6 percent of those born after 1990 started their first love while in the middle school, and 3.3 percent in primary schools, while the figure for those born before 1970 stood at 3.6 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. IANS