For those unmarried Chinese youths who want to avoid the drama of the never ending questions about their single status and dating, having a fake girlfriend via a smartphone app brings a lot of relief.

Xiaolei (a pseudonym) has been working in Beijing for five years after getting his master's degree. Like many other unmarried Chinese people, he found it stressful to find a girlfriend to take home for long holidays, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day falling in a row this year, Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Xiaolei planned to "rent" his colleague for 1,000 yuan this time. At first the colleague agreed to pretend to be his girlfriend and go back to his hometown in Inner Mongolia. Xiaolei bought two round way tickets in advance. But two days before departure, his colleague went back on her word and called it off.

"I’ve already promised my mother I’d take a girlfriend back home this time," said Xiaolei, who turned to online platforms and smartphone apps since there was little time to deal with the cancellation.

After registering online, he met a girl of similar age through the app. Xiaolei asked her out for a movie and whether she is would accept a fee of 1,000 yuan each day if she went back to his hometown and pretended to be his girlfriend. However, she turned him down after some consideration, saying his home is too far away, it was for too long and she barely knows him.

On China’s online platforms for renting girlfriends and boyfriends, the prices vary in accordance with users’ appearance and age, ranging from dozens of yuan to hundreds of yuan. The highest price is 1,000 per hour. The average is around 200 yuan.

The time slots available, location, professions and photos of the boyfriends and girlfriends for rent are clearly listed. Services range from having meals together and chatting, to traveling together and pretending to be boyfriend or girlfriend and visiting parents.

These apps win favor of unmarried youths in China. But reporters found that people do not need to register those apps with real names nor ID cards, which poses some security risks.