China: Woman advertises herself on billboards in search of a husband

A woman from the city of Chengdu in central China has taken out billboard adverts in her search for a husband, it seems.

After years of pressure from her family to get married, Huang Lijuan, 28, took out adverts on billboards across the city, according to Taiwan-based Want China Times. They show her dressed in a white gown, and riding a horse. "I have a house, car and savings... looking for Mr Right and a happy 2014," says the caption.

The paper quoted her as saying any potential partner "must be clean, positive, caring towards parents, responsible, although handsomeness is not a prerequisite".

The billboards reportedly cost about 1 million yuan a day (or about 165,300 dollars), but appear to have been offered to Miss Huang for free. Her employer, a local real estate firm, let the campaign run as its advertising space was going spare following the delay of a housing project.

Some social media users in China, doubt the authenticity of the adverts, however, and suspect they may be a marketing ploy.

The campaign is particularly unusual because it tends to be Chinese men who struggle to find a partner. The preference for boys in a country which - until recently - strictly enforced a one-child policy, has created agrowing gender imbalance.