为你觅得真爱的爱情超市

It's estimated that Beijing has more than 500-thousand single women eagerly looking for love. The number of men is even more shocking. Around 50 percent more than that number! Where are they going to find their life partners? Rely on online match-making or turn to relatives and friends? It seems that they now have another, more promising option. Recently, the first ‘love supermarket' opened up in Beijing. As our reporter Liu Yan explains, you could find your love right there on the supermarket shelf.

Zhou Xianyu has been working in Beijing for more than 10 years. But still today, she has not found her Mr. Right yet. Zhou is turning 30 next year and naturally she gets a little worried about her marriage. In China, most people believe for girls, the prime age to get married is under 28 years old.

However, recently Zhou found a new way to try her luck.

"I don't have a big social circle. As a result, I don't have much chance to meet new guys. I'm worried, my parents too. They've been pushing me hard recently. I feel this ‘love supermarket' is fine. The environment is relaxing, private, and staff here seem to have good credibility. Hope I'll be lucky here."

The ‘love supermarket' is named ‘I'm looking for you'. It is located in the hustle and bustle of the West Ring Plaza in West Beijing. And it just opened on November 9th. With its special way of running, it now welcomes many visitors who come to find love.

The layout of this ‘supermarket' is pretty much the same as ordinary supermarkets. It contains rows of shelves, but what on those shelves, are profiles of single men and women. They have been carefully classified by staff based on gender, age, income and so on.

Zhang Ying is the founder of the ‘Love Supermarket'.

"‘I'm looking for you' was actually the name of our match making website, which has a history of 3 years so far. Through our work, we found that single women and men prefer to pick their date in a more direct and tangible way. And they want information to be reliable. That's how we came up with the idea of the ‘love supermarket'. All information and pictures of the single people are there on the shelves. People come and they make their choices. I can tell you that the results are pretty encouraging."

To guarantee the authenticity of information of those marriage seekers, counselors have taken painstaking efforts to research on each applicant. The information must be confirmed face-to-face with the applicants, as well as with their neighbors and relatives.

Zhang Ying explains.

"Another part of a counselors' work is to analyze the needs of each applicant. What kind of person is he or she looking for? Sometimes, the applicants themselves do not know the answers. Counselors' role is to help them dig out that."

Gao Shan is one of the counselors in the ‘love supermarket'.

"The common solutions to find life partners include match making websites or relatives and friends. Online matching making is not always reliable. While relatives and friends may not be able to find the exact type a person they want. I think our ‘love supermarket' helps marriage seekers find their love more efficiently. First, all of our information is real. We've interviewed every one of them, we talked to their friends and relatives and we have daily-life pictures of each applicant. Second, there are a rich variety of choices. People come here to make their own choices. There is no risk like when you brave a blind date and it ends up awkwardly."

Actually, more than 500 single men and women have publicized their information in the love supermarket. It costs a person 20 yuan, or roughly 3 US dollars to put his or her information on shelf. And another 20 Yuan to arrange a meeting with the person he or she has picked in the love supermarket; Only if both parties feel attracted to each other and decide to go a step further will the supermarket charge its recommendation fee, which is 100 Yuan, or around 15 US dollars.

With its reasonable price and reliable service, the love supermarket has a good chance to seize the large market in Beijing. Zhang Ying tells reporters that their wish is quite simple, that is, to help those people find love.

"We sincerely hope that one day we will be considered helpful by marriage seekers. We hope they will refer us as trustworthy, with quality service, and being a smart choice for marriage seekers."

For Life in China, this is Liu Yan.