AS the National Holiday approaches, many single Hong Kong women have signed up for a matchmaking event in Shenzhen, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.
More than 100 Hong Kongers, accounting for half of all applicants, took part in a recent Shenzhen-Hong Kong dating activity, and many of them were female, Shenzhen Golden Phoenix Matchmaking Agency said Wednesday.
It’s all part of a growing trend of Hong Kong women looking across the Shenzhen River for boyfriends and spouses.
“Compared with four years ago, the number of single Hong Kong women taking part in the matchmaking events has increased greatly,” said Liu Jin, manager with the Shenzhen Golden Phoenix Matchmaking Agency, which specializes in marriages between Hong Kongers and Shenzheners. “During an event held on Chinese Valentine’s Day last month, roughly 20 of 100 singles were Hong Kong women.”
About 38,000 married Hong Kongers are permanent residents in Shenzhen. Roughly 18,000 of them are married to mainlanders, according to statistics released by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government. Statistics also indicate that a growing number of Hong Kong women are looking for mates on the mainland.
“The number of single Hong Kong women who’ve registered at the agency increased by 20 percent in 2008,” Liu said. “They are aged 30 to 40, and most of them own real estates in Shenzhen, travel a lot between the two cities and are very familiar with life in Shenzhen.”
He said these singles were looking for high-quality mainland men. Priorities for the women were men with overseas study experience, handsome salaries and similar ages.
Statistics released by the Hong Kong government show that the number of Hong Kong women marrying mainland men was fewer than 2,000 a year before 2005. That number surged to 2,409 in 2008, an increase of about 20 percent.
Hong Kong now has more than 3.7 million women, about 400,000 more than men, according to the SAR government.
(Cai Yingbo)