Inside the 'city of sex' where men 'have three girlfriends' because there's so many women
13:13, 2 September 2015
Updated 14:03, 2 September 2015
By Kirstie McCrum
Local factories running assembly plants prefer not to use men as they find them unreliable and instead offer work mainly to women
Three's company: The ratio of women to men means many have more than one girlfriend
Monogamy is the cornerstone of our society, but one global city is bucking the trend with so many women living there that most men have two or three girlfriends.
Dongguan, in south China’s Guangdong Province, is known for producing popular electronics such as iPhones and iPads - and also acting as the Chinese 'capital of sex'.
Thanks to the one child policy which operated in China for many years, the country has a massive gender imbalance with millions more men than women in the country.
Local factories running assembly plants prefer not to use men as they find them unreliable and instead offer work mainly to women.
This means the city has many more women than men, with the men taking odd jobs and casual work, leaving them with plenty of time on their hands.
Modern love: There are plenty of women looking for love and the men are only too keen
And that means time for more than one girlfriend.
Some admit they have two or three permanent girlfriends at the same time.
One man told local TV: "It is a lot easier here to find a girlfriend than a job."
The few men who do have jobs at the factories are in an even better position when it comes to finding a girlfriend, because most of the women end up spending long hours at work on the production lines.
That means if they look for love, the main place for them to find consolation is from within the company.
The disproportionate number of women has recently led to Dongguan being branded the 'capital of sex' with many women still willingly and knowingly involving themselves in relationships with men who already have other partners.
Li Bin, a migrant factory worker from south-western Sichuan Province, said: "I have three girlfriends, and all of them know about each other. Many of my friends also have many girlfriends."
He added: "There are so many young and naive female workers in the city. Why not have more than one if we can? Look, everyone is here to have fun; if you don’t do it, others will."
Kissing couples: One man told local TV: "It is a lot easier here to find a girlfriend than a job"
Li Bin admitted that it was a "joke" for a man to only have one female partner.
A Yi, 25, also a native of Sichuan, said he went to Dongguan to find a wife, as the dowry alone in his hometown would cost £3,000.
He said: "There are plenty of women in Dongguan, and they don’t want any money. They just want a man."
A Yi, currently unemployed, said he now has a girlfriend who pays his bills.
According to the Guangdong Women's Rights and Information Service, the women in Dongguan pretend not to know about other partners or simply ignore their existence; some of them are even colleagues in the same factory.
But they prefer the arrangement as it is better than being lonely, the women’s rights group said.
Most of the women in Dongguan will eventually return home to get married. The thought is that their lifestyle in the bustling 'capital of sex' is temporary, and simply a necessary evil.
