I Rented a Chinese Girlfriend in Shanghai 🇨🇳

Following his Tokyo experiment (I Rented a Japanese Girlfriend in Tokyo 🇯🇵), Harry tries China’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 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
• Country: China
• Tips: Carry a foreign eSIM