By the end of the decade, demographers say China will have 24 million "leftover men" who, because of China's gender imbalance, will not be able to find a wife.

This is the result of the country's strict implementation of the one-child policy, coupled with a preference for having boys.

Men are now finding it increasingly difficult to get married, especially in rural areas where many of the girls have left to find work.

Wei Tian Guang lives in Tanjen, Guangxi province, where in his class at school there were 20 boys and only six girls.

More on this story: Listen to Crossing Continents: Matchmaking in Modern China, on BBC Radio 4, Thursday 12 September at 11:00.