Rich pickings

It may be virgin on the ridiculous but a club of Chinese businessmen had more than 2,800 applicants after they advertised for wives in Guangdong province, in south-east China.

The 11 wealthy grooms, that includes at least one billionaire, said finding staff was always easiest by advertising, so they decided to apply the same strategy to their search for a marriage partner.

In total there were 11 wife positions up for grabs, and all the applicants needed to be either Chinese or of Chinese descent, attractive, single, and of course virgins.

They also needed to be aged between 18 and 28, have a height between 160cm to 175cm, and also with good qualifications.

The men themselves didn't bother to turn up to the first screening - using their HR dept to weed out the best 320 at a hotel in Guangzhou, capital of southeast China's Guangdong province, to move through to the second round.

In the second round the applicants will have top go through a beauty contest, a psychology test, and show off their other talents to produce a final list.

The 11 rich men who were not named made their money in real estate, banking, fashion and gastronomy.