What is the best you can give to your lover on Valentine's Day? Expensive gifts, a romantic candlelight dinner at a fancy Michelin restaurant, or just keep things simple by hanging out like when you first started dating?
Different people may make different choices. However, considering the fast pace of life today and the pursuit of ever higher salaries, even hanging out together is a rare luxury for lovers. Adding to the problem is that lovers who were once head over heels with each other may end up being easily defeated by time and distance - two huge obstacles in front of many young couples in China.
Almost lovers
On Wednesday, youth.cn, the largest mainstream youth website in China, released the results of a survey of 574 university students around China concerning the way they deal with long-distance relationships.
With more than 2.26 million's views on Sina Weibo within 12 hours, the survey quickly went viral across the internet with the tag "over 70 percent of university students are okay with long-distance relationships," which was one of the most astonishing finds of the survey.
The research also suggests that more than 70 percent of college students believe long-distance relationships will finally end in a break up with "lack of communication," "mutual suspicion and lack of trust," and "indifferent feelings" being the main factors.
Although most netizens have found the results of the survey reasonable, many people's attitudes have been "I don't like it, but I accept it."
However, opposing voices could also be heard.
"This is unacceptable to me. If my boyfriend can't even give me a hug when I'm down, what is the point of his existence?" netizen Shangui_anglepeng posted.
"Those who say they can accept a long distance relationship have never been in one," netizen Luckyangle123 posted on Sina Weibo.
There are also some people who posted how they successfully overcame the difficulties posed by long-distance relationships.
"At that time, my friends were not optimistic about us. To be honest, there was sadness, but there was even more happiness… Of course distance is a huge factor, but the most important factor is the man you choose," netizen Lairi Kepan posted.
"Distance is never a problem. The only problem is people's hearts as that is the only uncontrollable factor," said netizen Dazhang Lizi.
