College best time for romance, claim students

Traditional Chinese value defines school as a place for study -- only study, nothing else, especially things like having a relationship. But the value is coming under increasing challenges.

More than 60 percent of young people interviewed said that college is the best place for romance, according to a survey released last week.

One of the arguments they presented to support their claim is that the workload is not as heavy as in middle school. Plus, they added that by the time a student enters college, he or she is mature enough to decide the kind of partner they want.

The new perspective about dating seems not bad, because it may help alleviate one of the social problems in the country -- the growing difficulty many not-so-young find in hooking up with an ideal partner. And they attribute one of the reasons to not seeking a soul mate earlier, for example from when they were in school.

A total of 1,999 people aged 18 to 35 took part in the survey conducted by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily and online survey platform Wenjuan.com.

More than 40 percent said that they know quite a few excellent single people who are not so young anymore and still haven't found a partner.

Over 60 percent think parents should give more space to their children and let them decide for themselves.

The relationship-wise breakup of the respondents of the survey was 14.9 percent single, 19.1 percent unmarried but in love, 65.6 married, and 0.4 percent others. Females were the majority, 51.3 percent, and male the minority at 48.7 percent.