CRI听力:Beijing Home to Most Wealthy Singles

According to the survey done by Zhenai.com, the capital city of Beijing came top for the number of singles earning more than 50,000 Yuan, or 8,000 US dollars a month, followed by Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Most wealthy single men work in the manufacturing, internet and financial industries while wealthy single women work in finance and education.

Occupations vary for those earning more than 50,000 Yuan per month according to age - most post-60s singles work in manufacturing, post-70s in service, post-80s in finance and post-90s are freelancers.

The survey also found that wealthy singles in second-tier cities like to accumulate money in their bank accounts. Chengdu topped the number of singles with at least 500,000 Yuan in savings, followed by Chongqing and Nanjing.

As for the reasons why do they remain single, more than half of the surveyed say that they are "waiting for true love", while 22.9 per cent say that they are too busy and do not have the time for dating.

Wang Pei is the PR manager of the dating website, Zhenai.com:

"It seems that the new generation of the middle class, urban-dwelling singletons holds more respects towards their own feelings and the marriage. Chinese singles are taking matters into their own hands as for when or whether to get married."

Chen Fang, a 32-year-old client relations manager for a financial company in Beijing, embraces her single lifestyle. She enjoys a relatively high income of 20,000 RMB a month and often goes out with friends to dinners, movies and concerts.

"It's 21 century now, we don't need to get married for the sake of marriage. The pressure to get married mainly comes from my parents, who are pretty anxious that their daughter is still single at 30s. But ultimately my parents want me to be happy: they don't want to see me rushing into a marriage and get divorced later. "

This young man surnamed Wang at his 30-something also doesn't want to change his status quo:

"Our generation is more open. We don't think we single people should feel bad or miserable about ourselves. I'm pretty happy with what I am now: I'm now focused on my work and I have my circles of friends who often hang out together. I don't want to be braced up to the duties and obligations of marriage too early."

Although nearly 72 percent female respondents think man should have a house before getting into a marriage, it looks as though the vast majority of the surveyed paid more attention to their partners' moral qualities than their appearance and material wealth.