When the city’s lights dim and the snarling noises from the heavy-loaded trucks die down, Shenzhen, a city among the most populated places in the world, is more lonely than you could have ever imagined.

A recent report by Baihe Net entitled “Report on Shenzhen Residents’ Relationship and Marital Status” revealed that more than 70 percent of the city’s non-local residents find it hard to find their significant other, an opinion to which 69.1 percent of locals agree, reported Yangcheng Evening News on May 12.

It does not help matters when 85.9 percent of female respondents in Shenzhen and Guangzhou said they believe that a man with a monthly salary below RMB 5,000 ($800) should not even attempt to start a relationship, a salary already 8.4 percent higher than the national average, the report said.

And once in a relationship, marriage is the only thing keeping them committed because 72.2 percent of non-local Shenzhen residents believe marriage is the goal of relationships, an opinion 64.5 percent of locals seconded.

Not surprisingly, for the large pool of lonely souls, old maids and bachelors in the city, physical needs are self-actualized. 61.6 percent of bachelors in Shenzhen said their sexual needs were “self-sufficed and handled on their own”, and 29 percent of single women also took the matters into their own hands.

And don’t forget: China is still a country where men are pressured to marry in order to prove their manhood, and women marry for financial security. The pressure is mounting for Shenzhen’s singles, and none of the parties are happy about their status as singles; parents are constantly nagging them about potential marriage problems before the slightest opportunity for marriage had even arrived.

The report said 54.4 percent of local single males worry about regional cultural and custom differences in a cross-provincial marriage, and 39.8 percent worry about the trouble of commuting between the bride’s family and groom’s family during the Spring Festival.

Perhaps the only ones who are smiling after reading about the city’s large unwed population are the advertisers and shop owners who have perhaps, already started planning this year’s Singles Day retail campaigns on November 11.

 Home page and content page images: Sohu