A LOVE boat crowded with lonely Chinese millionaires will set sail this month on a cruise designed to make matches between China’s richest men and loveliest women.

Men wishing to be aboard on November 25, when the boat casts off on the Huangpu river from central Shanghai, must be worth at least two million yuan (£133,000). For women, the criteria are to be good-looking and desirable.

More than 20 men have already signed up for the cruise and of those half estimated their worth at more than 200 million yuan. According to Xu Tianli, the organiser of the event: “They have all come here in search of a serious relationship.”

Mr Xu’s matchmaking website — 915915.com — already boasts 20,000 registered members, including 3,000 millionaires from across China. In addition to the financial qualification, the site requires only that members have good looks and talent. The word “wealth” is printed across the top of the website, which is full of photos posted by members — mostly smiling, doe-eyed young women, or youthful men in jacket and tie.

The name of the website derives from the fact that 915, when said in Chinese, sounds like “only want me”.

According to Mr Xu, the kind of men hoping to take part in the cruise will be those who wish to find wives, but whose careers in China’s cut-throat, capitalist economy have tended to leave them little time to devote to romance.

He explained: “Rich men are normally very busy, and most of the women they meet are there for work or business, which these men consider to be unsuitable for relationships.”

The idea for a matchmaking party came from subscribers to the website. Mr Xu told The Times: “One of the rich members said it would be good to meet more than one woman at a time — it would save a lot of time — and we found the idea practical.”

More than 1,000 people have applied to join the party from whom Mr Xu has accepted 50 — and those only after careful scrutiny. There may in the end be only 30 prospective partners to choose from because the other 20 passengers will be the millionaires.

Every candidate is being vetted by the organisers. However, Mr Xu was at pains to emphasise that beauty alone would not be enough to win a millionaire spouse. He said that the organisers “will also check to see if the candidate is well educated, if he or she is artistically accomplished and widely read in literature”.

One yuan millionaire, the owner of a logistics business with assets of four million yuan said that he was seeking an attractive woman with a nice personality. Identifying himself only by his surname, Sun, he said: “I find pretty women on the street, but many of the women I meet in person are not the kind to win husbands. Appearance is most important to me.”

He has already paid 20,000 yuan to join the website, and will spend another 20,000 if he finds his bride as a result of its services. Mr Sun said he did not want to marry a woman who was only after his money, but he was confident that he could spot a gold-digger. “Surely there are women who are just here for the money, but I think I can see through that.”

It’s not only millionaire men who are going on the cruise, however. There are also some very wealthy women who are seeking a spouse both richer and more successful than they are. China’s latest rich list placed a woman, a self-made billionaire who made her fortune from recycling waste paper, in number one position. Perhaps more women will be taking the cruise in future.

MATING GAME

The latest trend for Chinese singletons is mass dating, where participants meet in groups to chat and exchange phone numbers

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