More HK women saying I do to Chinese men than ever before

Hong Kong actress Ada Choi Siu-fun poses with her mainland husband Zhang Jin, a Chinese action actor. [Photo/CFP]

The number of women from Hong Kong marrying men in Chinese mainland has risen to a 28-year high, according to latest data released by the Census and Statistics Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region..

A record 7,685 Hong Kong women had husbands from the Chinese mainland in 2014, 76 more than last year, while 15,226 Hong Kong men married women from the Chinese mainland in the same year, 859 less than the number in 2013.

The data note the total figure is only a crude indicator of the total number of marriages.

"Metropolis like Beijing and Shanghai have almost the same living conditions as Hong Kong, which relieves Hong Kong women's resistances to men living in those cities," said Chung Kim Wah, director of Centre for Social Policy Studies at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The director also said Hong Kong women have a better opinion of men in the Chinese mainland due to economic development, better education and more communication.

Chief of a Hong Kong matchmaking agency said over 30 percent of her businesses deal with couples from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland.

The chief, with 15 years' experience in this sector, said there has been a big change in recent years since "affluent women in the Chinese mainland are not willing to be married with Hong Kong men, while Hong Kong women are glad to work or marry and live in the Chinese mainland, especially as there are much better men in mainland."