By Chong Zi (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-02-04 17:09

Lao Feng, a maid who cleans my apartment every Saturday called me the other day. She asked for a day off. With the help of a matchmaker, she had to accompany her adopted daughter to meet her prospective husband.

Her daughter and the young man were captivated at first sight. The parents nodded their approval without hesitation. Then they set a date for the engagement. The parents of the man threw a big engagement party where the bride-to-be was given a ring, a pair of earrings and money from her would-be husband's relatives.

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Lao asked the parents of her future son-in-law to build a house for the young couple before they get married. The man's parents, who live on the outskirts of Beijing, agreed and submitted an application to the county government for a piece of land. The response is due in March.

On top of the expense for the couple's wedding, the young man's parents will spend 100,000 yuan ($13,500) on the new house.

This is the way young people in the countryside find their mates and their families deal with the wedding.

With the date for her daughter's wedding settled, the maid felt as though a load had been taken off her shoulders.

Her daughter was born in the year of the tiger (1986), and her prospective husband in the year of the ox (1987). Their years of bad luck will respectively be 2009 and 2010. The custom is that people are not supposed to get married in the year of an animal in which they were born. It is considered bad luck. So, the parents of the couple want them to get married this year, or they would have to wait till 2011. That would be too long to wait.

The parents of the man are going to set aside a large amount of their savings for the wedding and the new house.

People in cities can buy an apartment, a house or a car on mortgage. In the countryside parents of grooms-to-be are supposed to have a house available.

For people in the cities and countryside, the money they spend on weddings is rising faster than the CPI.

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