Single Women in China Allowed Eight Days of ‘Dating Leave’

Unmarried female workers at a theme park in Hangzhou, China have been granted an extra eight days of leave so they can focus on their dating lives.

The extra holiday will be added to the seven days they already get in celebration of the Lunar New Year.

Song Dynasty Town announced any women over 30 who are “non-frontline” workers will be eligible for the extra days off, which can even be extended if necessary.

According to South China Morning Post, Hangzhou Songcheng Performance human resources manager Huang Lei said: “The ratio of men to women in our company is about the same.

“[But] women employees mostly work in internal functional departments and some are show performers – some female staff have less contact with the outside world. Therefore, we hope to give more leave to female staff, to give them more time and opportunities to be in contact with the opposite sex.”

Many in China hold the belief that single women over 30 are less desirable. Marriage rates have been falling since 2013, however, in part due to women being more attentive to their careers, so that demographic is growing.

Some skeptics of the initiative have questioned who the women would go on dates with if all the men were still at work.

The country has been experimenting with the controversial idea of implementing social credit ratings to monitor citizens’ behaviour; a system that some dating apps have sought to incorporate.

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