Saturday lunch time at People's Park, Shanghai. Welcome to, the marriage market.

The noise and crowd, at first I thought we were entering a fruit and vegetable market. Hundreds of personal advertisements, with year of birth, height, education, job and salary, property owned and sometimes a photo, hang from bushes, trees, tops of umbrellas, placed on the ground with stones or clumps of mud and from any wall space possible. This is where online dating comes to life.
Hundreds of concerned parents get together every weekend in the hope of finding a suitable husband or wife for their child.

There is a huge amount of pressure in China for marriage usually before 25.
A 20 year old friend of mine, was discussing whether to stay with this guy she'd been dating for a few months as she wasn't sure if she'd like living with his mother when they got married.
Relationships in high school aren't really heard of due to educational pressures. There isn't sex education in China, with the government worried that this will encourage people. People don't get an opportunity to understand the opposite sex, what they want from him/her or how they should be treated.
Another friend married and had a baby by 24 and stated to me quite clearly she didn't love him and said it's easy just to be nice to him. Her child lives with her mother in-law back in her home town, many hours away by train. This too is quite normal, with only a few trips a year during Chinese holiday to see her daughter. Such a sacrifice to please her parents.

The pressure on marriage is so high that 80 percent of China's gay population hid their sexuality and marry straight people. I read on one website, "I want to have a fake marriage with a lesbian. I want to get married for my parents." There seems to be a pattern here…

Parents and even grandparents wonder around with notepads exchanging details with others. Some people don't even know they're being advertised on a walls or being carried around the neck of their Grandfather. Whether they like it or not, no-one wants to be a left over in society.

I feel like the 90's generation, with their modern mindset are lifting the 'left over' age range or at least for their children, but for now, these marriage markets will entertain outsiders and help others.