Single people's Christmas crisis

The city of Beijing is getting festive with the arrival of Christmas. Shopping mall business is up, restaurant bookings are up, and box office ticket sales are up. Perhaps the only things "down" in the city are the feelings of single people.

It is hard to say when Christmas became Santa's version of Valentine's Day. But for me, it started as a first year student in university. In that year, as my roommates and I discussed how to celebrate our first Christmas in college, one of the girls proclaimed loudly: "Sorry, I have plans with my boyfriend - don't count me in."

This was only the beginning. By the final year of my college life, there was only one girl in my dormitory who was available to celebrate Christmas with me. And for this coming Christmas, I can't find a single person out of all of my friends to spend the celebration with. Instead of becoming the chosen one, I was being left behind. I now know how difficult it is for single people to survive the holiday seasons.