Marriage in China is not the same as it used to be. The country is now in a situation where there are more men than women, and the shortage of young people are due to the one-child policy.
Single men nowadays are facing bigger challenges in finding a wife. According to state media, dowry price in some cities has increased especially if men are from poorer families.
People's Daily wrote, "The poorer the area is, the higher the dowry price."
This applies to poor places like Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang and the autonomous region in inner Mongolia. Dowry prices are as high as 200,000 yuan as well as jewelry and sometimes, an expensive car.
China's leftover men are then faced with a bigger problem of how to come up with such a sum, as well as trying to beat the competition.
There is a big number of bachelors who want to get married and only a few women to choose from. China's one-child policy forced many parents to favor a son over a daughter.
The effects of such policy are taking a toll on China's young generation.
According to Zhai Zhenwu, director of population studies center at Renmin University in Beijing, The phenomenon of dowry inflation in rural areas have been rising since the 1980s. The increase in dowries happen because of the low supply of women fit to be married.
The huge gender gap is not seen to be resolved in the next few years even as the two-child policy is already in effect. There will be an estimated 30 million more males than females by 2020.
According to political economist Nicholas Eberstadt, more than a quarter of Chinese men in their 30s will remain unmarried in 2030.
Aside from the high pressure to marry, men are also dealing with tremendous stress and money to convince their partners to enter the next phase of commitment.
Some men would even spend their life savings to get women to marry them but still get rejected. This was true from a man in Guangzhou who bought 99 iPhones as part of a production to propose to his girlfriend.
The woman refused the proposal.