• Online dating is popular among Chinese singles in their late twenties, although they claim to do it for fun, not to rush to find a partner to marry.

Online dating is popular among Chinese singles in their late twenties, although they claim to do it for fun, not to rush to find a partner to marry. (Photo : www.straitstimes.com)

Beijing has the largest numbers of wealthy singles in China, according to a survey released by dating website Zhenai.com.

The survey sampled the 80 million members of the website and classified those who earned at least twice the average local monthly salary of 50,000 yuan (roughly $8,050) as "wealthy."

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Beijing is followed by Shenzhen, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Among secondary cities, Chengdu has the most wealthy singles who have at least 500,000 yuan in savings, followed by Chongqing and Nanjing.

The survey says that most of these wealthy singles were born in the 1980s, with about half claiming they plan to stay single until they find true love.

The reason behind these wealthy singles staying single varies, with 23 percent saying they are "too busy" to date, 8.79 percent saying they are psychologically scared of marriage, and 6.21 percent saying they enjoy the freedom single life brings.

The female singles tend to be more educated than the male singles, with over 15 percent of female singles in the survey having some form of post-graduate degree, as opposed to only 8.04 percent of males. The most educated females tend to work in the finance or education industries, while educated males tend to work in manufacturing, information technology or finance.

Wealthy singles also end up in higher positions, with more than half of them holding positions like department manager or director.

In China, single women over 27 are referred to by some as "shengnu," meaning leftover woman, while single men are referred to as "bare-branch" bachelors. Both carry negative stigma in Chinese society, wherein parents see their children getting married as a financial and emotional safety net.

However, trends indicate that there are fewer single Chinese citizens in their late twenties who concern themselves with marriage. Some note that, while dating and meeting the right person is still important, they no longer believe in rushing marriage to meet the socially dictated deadline the older generation subscribed to.

Part of the interest with singles was brought about when analysts pointed to the one-child policy as the reason there are too few women for China's single men, with the gender ratio being 116 men for every 100 women. For reference, the average gender ratio for a country is 105 men for every 100 women.