Wang Haiming was determined not to sit in his apartment alone on Nov. 11, 2011, a day with six "1"s on the calendar and a headache for the 33-year-old bachelor.
Instead, Wang joined a tour group of 34 single men and women, hoping to find romance while traveling around south China's resort island of Hainan.
"I'd like to make this year's Single's Day truly memorable by finding a Miss Right and ending my bachelorhood," said Wang.
Unattached Chinese men and women celebrate Single's Day on November 11 as the date consists of four "ones," a number that visualizes the Chinese word for bachelor -- "bare stick."
Although it started as a campus joke in the 1990s, Single's Day has in recent years evolved into a real festival, a boon for businesses as fashionable young people swarm shopping malls to mark the day.
This year marks the Super Single's Day, as six "1"s make up 11/11/11,savvy merchants have rolled out love-themed products and kicked off sales promotions in hopes of boosting the traditionally bleak retail period.
On Taobao.com, a bustling B2C platform in China, shirts with "Not Lonely" emblazoned on the front and "certificates" issued to "bare sticks" have been among the website's best-selling items just days ahead of Nov. 11.
Flower shops have also reported a price surge on roses following an influx of orders.
"Many customers who are married or already in relationships send flowers to their single friends as a way of passing on 'blessings and luck,'" said a florist in the city of Shijiazhuang, Hebei province.
Meanwhile, travel agencies have become an unlikely player in the campaign. Hebei China Comfort Travel said their "Single No More" trip to Hainan has received a flood of applications from singles.
The trip plans to take 34 tourists to Hainan, where nearly a thousand single men and women will gather to hold a match-up festival on Nov. 11, said Liang Tao, the company's publicity manager.
"Travel creates an ideal occasion for socializing and dating, and appeals those who feel too embarrassed to go to a blind date," said Liang.
Some wedding companies, however, are putting a different spin on the date, promoting 11/11/11 as a symbol of "one for life" and have offered discounts for couples who tie the knot on that day.
"Single's Day is very much a product of commercial marketing. Businessmen used to do the same things to promote Valentine's Day and Mother's Day," said Jin Xiaotong, vice dean of the business college of Jilin University.
Sociologists, however, said the boom in business also reflects a changing outlook on love and marriage in a society that traditionally highlights getting married and building a family.
"Staying single is less a synonym for a loser, but more of a reason for happiness and fun," said Yuan Xuejun, head of the Hebei Folklore Association.
