In his front yard, Wang Dianchun is checking up his dogs in the cold spring afternoon---golden retrievers, Tibetan chow chows, wolfhounds, and some local ones. Female dogs are going to bear puppies in several months. For Wang, those puppies which have not existed in their mothers' belly yet, are all his hope of marrying a wife in the future. 

"I was too poor to marry in my twenties," the short peasant in his late forties says. Wang, having seven brothers and three sisters, lives in a village named Yongfatun near Harbin city in Northeast China. Thirty years ago, the price of marriage was around three thousand RMB in Wang's village, and it becomes to more than a hundred thousand RMB in recent years, which means the price has risen a hundredfold. 

Wang Dianchun is one of the millions of leftover men in rural areas of China, the world's most popularized country. Scholars have different opinions about the scale of the group. However, they all admit that it is a huge problem in China rural areas. They are mainly caused by poverty, population migration and imbalanced sex ratio.

"I wish to grow eternal love trees in front of my grave, and eternal love flowers behind my grave", Yang Zhen, 24, always posts his sad feelings like this on WeChat (a Chinese social media) to memorize his gone relationship. "I broke up with my girlfriend last year because I couldn't afford our marriage," Yang says, "even though we have been loving each other for seven years."

It's not just a simple wedding for Chinese people to marry. Normally, the bridegroom's family needs to prepare a house and a car for the couple-to-be. Besides, the bride's side will ask for betrothal gifts from the bridegroom's side. Many poor families in rural areas can't afford it. 

Poverty is the main reason of becoming "leftovers", says Jin Yongai, a teacher studying demography at Renmin University. Jin explains that there is a theory called "the marriage ladder" in demography. "Roughly, we can classify the society into A-D classes," Jin says, "and there is a tradition to marry up in China. Female tend to marry men who have more fortune, power and education than themselves." 

Jin also says that the other main reason which accelerated leftover men in rural areas is the population migration. Population migration became popular after China's reform and open up. People with resources came outside the world and make a fortune, which let them find wives easily, leaving poor people far behind; and female migration to the outside also leads to the shortage of proper spouses in rural areas. 

And here's the more disturbing fact for China: due to the serious imbalance of sex ratio at birth caused by the one-child policy implemented by the Chinese government in the beginning of 1980s. According to the study of Professor Li Shuzhuo's team in Xi'an Jiaotong University, there will be about 30 million more male than female. most of them are concentrated on the 80s and 90s.

However, up till now, there's no direct solution to solve the leftover men's problem. "The government can only try to improve these men's healthcare and take care of them when they grow old, as they cannot have any children," Jin said, "and in order to control unbalanced sex ratio at birth, the government needs to do more propaganda on gender equality and implement laws and policies to prevent gender imbalance."

But for Wang Dianchuns and Yang Zhens, they still want to marry. But before that, they want to make money first.

Now, Wang Dianchun takes care of his dogs every day and hopes they will be sold at a good price in autumn. Yang Zhen runs between his rent room near Xiangshan Mountain and his office near Renmin University. "I will only have the willing to find a girlfriend when I save enough money in Beijing," Yang says, "I don't want to be a leftover without any money."