Rent a womb(2)

While most Chinese surrogates in China are required to follow the exact instructions from clients, American surrogates in the US have their own preferences and views on lifestyle and prenatal care.

It can be irksome to Chinese intended parents when young American surrogates remain active and go to sports events and parties before the 12th week. They are supposed to be calm and rest. And Americans drink cold water, which is considered very unhealthy in traditional Chinese medicine, especially during pregnancy.

Chinese specify their body type preferences in the surrogacy contract and sometimes pay surrogates not to work or be active before the 12th week. Diet can also be specified.

Surrogates in China

Surrogacy has been banned by China's Ministry of Health since 2001.

Still, business is good.

Those seeking surrogates are generally infertile couples, older couples who want a child outside the one-child policy, celebrities, and gay couples.

According to the China Infertility Report by the China Population Association in 2012, the nationwide infertility rate has reached 12.5 percent. It's even higher in bigger cities such as Shanghai and Beijing where there's more environmental pollution, stress and unhealthy living.

Among the infertile couples, some are able to conceive with medical assistance, while others require a surrogate.

China's one-child policy has driven the demand for surrogates. Though it has been relaxed somewhat to allow single-child parents to have a second child, that change is very recent and it doesn't help people like Daisy Chen from the single-child generation who are past child-bearing age.

Between 2011 and 2013, a few large-scale crackdowns on the black market for eggs and embryos took place in Beijing, Wuhan in Hubei Province and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.

In 2012, Shenzhen police investigated a registered elder care facility, which housed no seniors, only pregnant women suspected of being surrogates. Police confiscated a record book of all transactions, which covered several dozen pages, and surrogacy contracts. Attorneys say the contracts are not protected by law.

Many illegal facilities were closed and some doctors' medical licenses were suspended.

Authorities also banned surrogacy-related posts and content on some major websites, however, the multimillion dollar black market is still going strong.

"I already have two daughters and my wife is too old to carry another child," says 48-year-old John Zhao in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong Province. "I want a son to inherit my business and my bloodline."

Bloodline, transmitted through sons, is still important in China. Quite a few people still seek illegal ultrasound scans to determine the gender of a fetus, and then obtain illegal sex-selective abortion if it's female.

The son of farmers, Zhao became a construction worker, then a contractor and is now the president of a listed real estate company.

"I don't care much about the money, as long as I'm guaranteed a son," says Zhao who has turned to an agency based in Guangzhou.

The total cost is around half a million yuan, he says, and includes the commission for the agency, payment and living costs for the surrogate and medical costs for delivery.

Through the agency, Zhao has chosen a 29-year-old divorced model who agreed to live with him and his wife until she became pregnant — she is now six months' pregnant.

Zhao says he prefers a natural pregnancy because Chinese believe intercourse produces a child that is more attractive and intelligent than one carried by a surrogate.

"My wife has no say in this since she couldn't conceive a son for me," he adds.