To please his mother and father a Peking University student is offering 1,000 yuan for ten days rental of a 'girlfriend' he wants to take home for the holidays.

 

An advertisement posted on a bulletin board by physics student, Zhu Lijie, seeks to rent "an honest, kind and similar aged girl with a diploma." Zhu told a local reporter that his parents had been pushing him to find a girlfriend and asked him to bring their "quasi-daughter-in-law" home for the Spring Festival.

 

He tried to explain to his parents that with his nose buried in books he'd no time to meet anyone. The parents are apparently not that impressed with this response though he has won the "Excellent Student Award" three times during his four year academic career.

 

Zhu told the reporter he'd received, "Nearly 20 calls in two days and I have an agreement with one of my classmates who'll help me accomplish my plan."

 

When Xinhua News Agency tried to follow up the story Zhu's phone was switched off and no one in the Physics Department had heard of him?

 

Peking University staff and Beijing police warn students, especially young women, to be wary of such advertisements. Many believe Zhu was an alias that he used to keep his plan a secret.

 

Wang Jisheng, a professor with the Psychology Institution of the Chinese Academy Sciences, said the ad. shows that Zhu is trying to show filial piety to his parents but he is in fact only cheating them.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2007)