A British man who works in a school in east China's Jiangsu Province used a special method to court a local girl: He proposed marriage on a skyride as they were going up a mountain.

The drama was arranged on Purple Mountain a major peak in Nanjing, the provincial capital by Tom and his colleagues, the Modern Express reported

Tom comes from Yorkshire, England, and has been in love with Li Xin for more than a year since he came to teach at an international school in Nanjing two years ago.

Leaning on Tom's shoulder while traveling on a cable car, Li was flushed with excitement and accepted his bouquet of flowers and a diamond ring, the Nanjing-based newspaper reported.

Tom said of Li: "When I first arrived in Nanjing single, she gave me warmth. She is warm, gentle and kind."

Tom said he planned the drama, as he once heard from Li that she had never ridden the 2,350-meter skyride up Purple Mountain, known as the "lung of Nanjing".

On March 7, Tom asked his colleague surnamed Ding, and a car driver to pick Li up at her home at 8 am.

"Where are we going?" Li asked.

Ding replied: "To a place you will not forget as long as you live."

The perplexed Li followed, and arrived at the Bunker City station of the Purple Mountain Sightseeing Cable Car.

There, a car decorated with roses, pine needles, baby's breath flowers and pink yarn was waiting.

Li embarked on the cable car alone and was on her way up the mountain.

At 9:25 AM, when the car was about 50 meters from the Purple Mountain Observatory, Tom turned up from behind a stone pillar at the observatory with a bouquet of flowers, smiling.

Tom had arrived at the observatory before 7 AM, and another colleague of his, surnamed Zhou, pleaded for help from the skyride company, which agreed to the flower decoration and a stop at the observatory to pick up Tom.

By the way, Li said yes.

(China Daily March 14, 2007)