The Western festival of Valentine's Day descends and Lanzhou City's civil affairs investigation bureaus as well as private detective agencies have been seeing a surge in business. Most clients requested investigations of where their lovers or spouses would be on Valentine's Day. This changed a day for celebrating love into catching adulterers.

The person in charge of a private detective agency on Lanzhou's Jiuquan Road told that, amongst the more than 100 cases his agency handled last year, 70 percent involved investigation of what individuals were doing privately. As Valentine's Day approached, his agency has received more than twenty cases of requests for investigating possible extra-marital affairs, with more than 70 percent of these requests coming from white-collars.

Lanzhou City's private detective agencies typically charge at least 1,000 yuan (US$125) for its investigative efforts. Although the fees are not cheap, many troubled by love are willing to open their wallets.

Regarding this, experts believe that during the Valentine period, singles can use this opportunity to express their love while those married can also use the occasion as a knock of the heart, giving one's marriage a one-time nurturing and maintenance, this being the real meaning of the Valentine's Day for Chinese people.

(Chinanews.cn February 14, 2006)