Senior citizens gather at Beijing park to find new potential partners

By Dong Feng Source:Global Times Published: 2019/6/3 19:50:17

○ In Beijing, elderly citizens are looking for their twilight love in Changpu River Park 

○ Questions about pensions and physical condition are inevitable for those seeking a relationship in the park

○ Some children oppose their parent's marriage due to concerns over inheritance 

Beijing residents rest at a corner of Changpu River Park in July 2018. Photo: VCG

The West may have the Bridges of Madison County, but in Beijing, elderly citizens go to a park next to the Forbidden City to find love in their twilight years. 

Under the swaying willows on a Tuesday afternoon in the early summer at Changpu River Park, one can see many people in their senior years chatting. Male visitors here are ready to talk to anyone as soon as they make eye contact. The park itself is famous for being a place where elderly citizens can seek a  relationship. 

By the river, a group of people in their 60s or early 70s are playing chess. Next to them are two posters written with basic information, such as age and residential registration, plus requests for interested people to leave mobile phone numbers at the end. 

The proportion of widowed people has reached 26.1 percent among old people in China, according to the fourth revision of the urban and rural elderly living conditions in China in 2015, cnr.cn reported in October 2016.

Residents in Qingdao,East China's Shandong Province, browse information during a match-making event at a local park in October 2018. Photo: VCG



Not about romance


Like young people seeking romance or marriage, these older people are quite picky when trying to engage with a person of the opposite sex.

The size of the monthly pension is the first question for people who want to find a relationship in the park. They will also usually start by asking more questions about housing status, number of children and physical condition.

"In their late years, people want to find a partner so that they don't have to face problems such as poor health and loneliness all by themselves," a visitor who was practicing Chinese calligraphy said to a group of people resting on benches. 

"Of course, it's not about romance anymore, it's more about making each other's lives easier in the coming years," he added. 

China's average life expectancy is about 77 years old, which means that older people over the age of 75 will face more risk of being widowed. Being a single senior citizen and empty nester is becoming the new normal in China.

"It is satisfying to have someone to talk to," Zou, 66, a female visitor told the Global Times. 

However, many of them appear to be unsatisfied with the results of their courting, but keep coming back. 

Li Fang (pseudonym), 68, was one of them. "He expects me to take care of him if he has a stroke some day, but he doesn't plan to share his income with me. What sort of deal is that? Do I look like a fool or a selfless angel to him?" she complained.

Almost all park visitors have clear priorities when looking for partners. Those with medical insurance are preferred, as are those in good health. Widowers are preferable to divorcees, and those with married children are more sought after than those with unmarried ones. 

Female visitors who come from other provinces tend to look for partners who are based in Beijing. For the local men, local women are preferred, while those who might not be financially well off tend to be more open to partners from other parts of the country. 

"My ideal partner would be a local with lots of money," Wu, 59, recently retired and divorced, told the Global Times. 

When Qi An (pseudonym), 62, learnt that a relative in another province was widowed and seeking a new partner after enduring half a year of loneliness, he enthusiastically asked for more details. 

A former policeman, Qi has been visiting the park for years, and he learned from his experience that even if he could not find himself a new partner, he could help other people do so, which was more interesting than killing time watching TV. 

Qi told the Global Times that he once tried to introduce a 50-year-old woman from Tianjin whom he met in the park to his friends.

The divorced woman wanted to find a partner in Beijing. She tried many candidates but none of them worked out, as the woman made more demands each time - from adding her name to the candidate's property certificate to offering housing for her daughter, who had just graduated from college, and finally requiring that her burial costs be covered when she dies. 

"She might be worried about her daughter's future, but she should not treat her future partner as an ATM. I got so disappointed with her so many ridiculous demands. I vowed never ever to ask about her affairs anymore," Qi said. 



More pressure

Even if someone is lucky enough to find the right one, there could still be obstacles to them getting married. 

"My new girlfriend's son almost had me beaten up when I visited her for the third time. We didn't go on to live together, we just saw each other at this park," one of the park visitors said.

Older citizens face more pressure than young people when it comes to tying the knot. Their children may be worried that their parents could be swindled, and there are also concerns over possible inheritance disputes, experts said. 

To avoid such problems, some elderly couples may choose to live together without getting registered. According to a report published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), over 80 percent of senior citizens decide to avoid the paperwork involved in getting married again, and just move in together without any legal process. 

However, when one of the partners passes away, the whole family may fight to become the property's legal heir. For some widowers, it is not feasible for them to find a new home, and they cannot find a way out, according to the report.

Despite the existing problems, the trend for single senior citizens to look for new partners is growing.

Matchmaking corners have emerged in cities such as Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, with the corner at Hongyadong in Yuzhong District filled to capacity every weekend.

In Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, a blind date event was held on May 20 at Wanda shopping mall, the 13th year the event was held. 

A total of 4,121 people registered for the event, setting a new record, with participants' age ranging from 40 to 87, the Shandong-based news portal bandao.cn reported on May 22. 

In 2018, the population of China aged 60 and above reached 249.49 million, accounting for 17.9 percent of the entire population, becoming the country with the largest and fastest-growing aged population in the world, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). 

With the aged population growing in China, more people are calling for understanding of elderly people's desire for a marriage. 

By 2050, 36.5 percent of China's population will be over the age of 60, according to a UN publication World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision.

"China is among the countries enjoying the strongest economic growth but also facing the problem of an aging society," the report reads.

Zhang Hongying, a sociologist, was cited by the Xinhua News Agency as saying that society should have more tolerance of elderly people's lifestyle and "they should have the right and freedom to live the lives they want."



 




Newspaper headline: Twilight love


Posted in: IN-DEPTH

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