Easy to fall for the gentle charms of a Vietnamese woman

Some recent marriage agency advertisements on the internet have been controversial, guaranteeing mainland bachelors that their prospective Vietnamese brides will be virgins, will agree to marriage within three months and will be replaced if they run away.

Mainland reporters have been sent to Vietnam to verify articles describing Vietnam as a land of young, gentle women, all longing for a life in China. One of the reporters, who fell in love with a Vietnamese woman while on assignment, likened Vietnam to Pandora, the planet in the movie Avatar, for men from the mainland.

"I fully expected the stories to have been magnified and ridiculous before I visited Vietnam," he said. "I don't believe in rushed marriages and had never considered transnational marriage.

"After joining a tour, a matchmaker organised for me and several other mainland men to have blind dates with some young Vietnamese women. Since then, I've started to understand the virtues of Vietnamese women, they are totally different to the city girls I know on the mainland. Most have high school diplomas. All of them are gentle and artless. I remember a girl quietly picked up my clothes lying around the hotel room and washed them. She did not speak even a word to me.

"They all listened carefully and admiringly when we talked about our work in China. It sounded like they were very touched to see a man working hard and doing housework.

"None of them asked me how old I was, how much I earned and whether I had an apartment. I have dated some girls in mainland cities. They would usually be very concerned with the financial situation.

"The women I met there were very traditional, natural, housewifely and easily satisfied with a man who has a stable job and cares for his wife. After the first night, I had to warn myself in front of the mirror 'don't forget your assignment, you are not here for a girl'.

"But I couldn't help myself when meeting my girlfriend. She's a 22-year-old graduate and works in a Taiwanese-funded factory. So she can speak Chinese well.

"She took me around Hanoi on her motorbike. I felt very comfortable to be sitting behind her. I don't need to care about my appearance or have to send her roses or take her out to a luxurious hotel for dinner. I feel I'm the one to be cared for and beloved.

"She did all the laundry for me. When I told her that I'm just a common man on the mainland, she said: 'It's good enough that you work hard and respect me'. "I'm very touched. I have not promised her a marriage but I may think of it in future."

He Huifeng