---
type: Video
title: "I Rented a Chinese Girlfriend in Shanghai 🇨🇳"
description: Harry rents a girlfriend for a day in Shanghai — the Bund, street food, the Oriental Pearl Tower views, and candid talk about dating and life in China.
tags: [china, shanghai, dating-culture, city]
timestamp: 2026-07-12T12:00:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VzMQYqcZKs
video_id: 4VzMQYqcZKs
upload_date: 2024-02-08
duration: 1181
---

# I Rented a Chinese Girlfriend in Shanghai 🇨🇳

Following his Tokyo experiment
([I Rented a Japanese Girlfriend in Tokyo 🇯🇵](/videos/cjsAG4cBTuU.md)),
Harry tries [China](/countries/china.md)'s rent-a-girlfriend scene — a
service he links to the gender imbalance left by the one-child policy. He
meets Maylin, a Shenzhen-born office worker who's lived in
[Shanghai](/places/shanghai.md) for eight years, on the Bund. Over a day of
walking, street food (she brings him a gift), a Christmas market, TikTok
livestreamers on the Bund, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower's glass-floor
viewpoint (where she reveals a fear of heights, and Harry gets recognised by
subscribers twice), and a famous Chinese garden, she gives him a candid
picture of modern Chinese life — marriage pressure from parents, young
Shanghai preferring single life, hot drinking water as a health habit, and
which topics are only safe to discuss off camera. The date cost 1,400 yuan,
about $200 — and she says yes to a free second date, time permitting.

## Key moments

- [00:00] The premise: the one-child policy's male-female imbalance and the
  rent-a-girlfriend services it spawned; Harry books via Chinese social
  media.
- [01:01] Meeting on the Bund, Shanghai's riverfront hangout.
- [03:13] Nobody in China watches YouTube — Instagram and co. are blocked;
  she uses a VPN, while Harry's foreign eSIM works without one.
- [03:45] Dating culture: parents push early marriage (hers included), but
  young people — especially in Shanghai — increasingly prefer staying
  single.
- [07:44] A street-food snack Harry rates the best jianbing he's had, and a
  surprise gift from Maylin.
- [07:51] China serves drinking water hot — for health.
- [08:28] What don't you like about China? "I love China" — criticism waits
  until the camera is off.
- [09:37] Everything is paid by phone with Alipay; Harry's foreign bank card
  is nearly useless.
- [11:19] A Christmas market that feels like New York; the one-child policy
  was lifted around a year prior (from video – unverified).
- [13:54] TikTokers and livestreamers filming with three-phone rigs on the
  Bund.
- [14:48] Under the river to the new city and up the Oriental Pearl TV
  Tower — $56 (from video – unverified), with a pricier top level Harry
  skips; coaxing Maylin onto the glass floor over a city of 25 million.
- [16:44] A subscriber, half-Indian half-Chinese, compares China and India:
  advanced transport, low crime, friendly police — but you can't criticise
  the government the way you can in India or the UK.
- [18:42] A famous, pristine Chinese garden — and the payment: 1,400 yuan,
  about $200 for the day.

## Extracted pages

- Place: [Shanghai](/places/shanghai.md)
- Country: [China](/countries/china.md)
- Tips: [Carry a foreign eSIM](/tips/carry-a-foreign-esim.md)