FOR the singletons among us, finding the perfect partner is a problem experienced all around the world and even Hangzhou has its fair share of romantic failures. Xu Wenwen meets some local serial daters who still can't find Mr or Mrs Right.

Guo Yun can't remember how many times exactly he has been on a blind date, but it is approximately 400 times in the past 10 years.

The 40-year-old teacher at an art college in Hangzhou has spent more than 100,000 yuan (US$15,082) on blind dates in the past decade, treating his dates to meals, buying them gifts and paying dating agency fees - all without success in finding the "one."

Among the hundreds of women he has dated, some are very beautiful, some are professionals and some are young students. But not one of them has met his standards. "I pursue perfection," said Guo.

So how perfect should his wife be? Guo presents his specific criteria below:

Firstly, considering his future offspring's height, women less than 160 centimeters tall are rejected. Guo's height is around 170cm, but he's eager to have a tall child. So what if the woman is 159cm tall? "No, 160cm is my base line," Guo said shaking his head.

Similarly taking his potential children's appearance into account, women with dark skin are rejected as well. In China, light skin is generally preferred over dark skin.

"With my intelligence and my wife's light skin inherited, my child would be outstanding," Guo said. He said once there was a smart, attractive woman with dark skin pursuing him, however, on the grounds of his strict criteria he refused her.

His third rule is that they can't be local Hangzhou girls. "Local girls feel good about themselves, and they are materialistic in that they value a man by checking if he has a car and a house, ignoring inner beauty," he said, "and their topics of conversation are always shopping, luxury goods and money, which is boring."

Next, women with qualifications below a bachelor's degree are not acceptable. As a master, Guo thinks his knowledge covers art, literature, history, politics and philosophy, and as a result not-so-well-educated people cannot understand his thoughts.

In a similar manner, nurses, who are usually tender and lovely women adored by many Chinese men, do not make his grade, because most of them graduated from technical secondary school. Bad-tempered women are also out. "This standard is vital, since beauty will fade as women age, so a good temper will be more important then," he explained. "It will be a disaster to live with an aging woman with a bad temper."

And finally, no shortsighted women. If a woman's appearance is being scored using a centesimal system, a woman with glasses should be deducted at least five marks.

"To get my master's degree I've read so many books, but my eyes are well. Those who have read few books but are shortsighted must have an irregular posture while reading."

Guo clearly has a strict system to filter dates, but he is not alone.

Strict system

As blind dating is an increasingly normal method to find a dream partner in modern China, it's not rare to see "leftover" single men and women who have been blind dating numerous times. These serial daters are nicknamed "blind date doyen."

To see what's behind the phenomenon of "blind date doyen," we'll look at more examples.

China's Singles' Day took place last Thursday and blind date fever was aroused all over the country as a great number of matchmaking agencies organized speed-dating activities for "leftover" single men and women.

One such speed-dating party was held at a Hangzhou KTV bar on Thursday evening organized by Xinxinyuan Matchmaking Agency, a leading local agency, and "If You Are The One," the most popular blind date TV program in China, and more than 100 single people participated.

Most of them said they have had blind date experiences before this event, while half of them have been on more than five blind dates in the past.

Thirty-nine-year-old Lao Li attended the party and although he didn't want to specify how many times he has been on blind dates, his professional matchmaker described the number as an "N," meaning many.

Lao Li has never married, and keeps looking for a woman who should be tall, well-educated and has a nice temperament.

There were some pretty, tall ladies with nice temperaments at the event that evening, but Lao didn't talk to anyone at the party. "I I don't think match them," he said, contradicting his requirements, "and I am introversive and I don't talk to women much."

Divorced 37-year-old Mao Mao has been on almost 20 blind dates. Sometimes, he has felt the woman was good but she has not felt the same about him, and other times the date has liked him but he hasn't liked her.

Prudent seekers

Mao said he must be prudent about his second marriage, "I am looking for an understanding wife and loving mother, and I hope she and I will both be pleasing to each other's eyes."

While men usually seek an attractive woman with a nice temperament, women tend to focus on a man's financial status and career.

At the party, women frequently said a "nice family financial situation," "decent job" and "clean appearance" were preferred.

Carmen Zhou who attended the party is a slightly fat girl. She has been blind dating eight times, but none of them has worked out.

Though she is nearing the age of 30, she said she won't lower her requirements and make haste to find a partner. "I'd prefer a well-educated man with certain economic power, and his family should not have many financial burdens," she said.

Zhou Yan, the general manager of Xinxinyuan, described to Shanghai Daily three kinds of "blind date doyen."

The first kind: completists who have so many requirements that his or her idea of the perfect partner does not actually exist in the real world. Guo Yun is one of this kind.

"Those people do not know how to look at themselves," she explained. "On one hand, their harsh terms scare others; on the other hand, when their dream match appears, they are not capable of seizing his or her heart."

The second kind: people who lack confidence, like Lao Li. "Those people are not good at taking the opportunities available as they have misgivings about whether they are good enough and withdraw themselves from advancing," Zhou said.

The third one: people who enjoy the process of blind dating but are afraid of committing to marriage or a serious relationship.

Zhou cited an example: a man who has been registered at Xinxinyuan agency for 11 years but has never got married. The 37-year-old man started dating girls introduced by matchmakers when he was 26. He is handsome, well-educated and successful in his career.

When he goes on a blind date he dresses smartly and chooses a nice venue to meet for a meal, however, no girl has ever dated him more than three times.

When he is asked what his requirements are, he always says: "I follow destiny."

In fact, "his biggest problem is he can see people's merits and faults as soon as he talks to others," said Zhou.

"He dates and he finds pleasure in analyzing his dates."