500 ladies seek millionaires at hook-up event

A young woman has her pulse taken by a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner as part of a vetting process during an upscale matchmaking event for millionaires on June 30 in Beijing.Photo:news.sina.com.cn

Over 500 single women participated in an upscale matchmaking event on June 30, all desperate to become wealthy housewives.

The event organizer, China Entrepreneurs' Club for Singles, claims to charge men an annual fee of 200,000 yuan ($32,580) for chances to meet carefully selected and screened lineup of ladies, the Beijing Times reported.

While women are not charged a fee, the club claims to vet all potential matches through rigorous rounds of written tests and interviews, including an intelligence exam, psychological evaluation and a "life skill test".

Other hurdles include a shirt folding contest, a luggage packing challenge, a tarot card reading and a pulse-taking by a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, the latter of which the club claims is necessary to determine "the health and character of the candidate," said the report.

Though increasingly popular in China, critics argue that upscale matchmaking services promote money worship and merely help millionaire bachelors find desirable virgins.

And sometimes determined women are not bashful about proving their "purity". While fighting for a date with a wealthy bachelor last year, a girl who was born after 1985 and worked in Wuhan allegedly presented the medical paperwork proving her virginity - a bold move that apparently paid off with a wedding ring, Wuhan news portal cnhubei.com reported on July 1.