Monique Maritz, 25, is a South African.

She went to Shanghai for nightlife. "But after a year I got tired of not getting enough sleep and came to Shenzhen instead," she said.

Maritz is an English teacher at a kindergarten in Futian District, but has taught English at various kindergartens around Shenzhen.

She met her boyfriend, also from South Africa, in Shenzhen.

She said her boyfriend had proposed to her in a cable car over the ocean in Singapore. "We don't have an exact date set for the wedding yet, because both our families are scattered all over England and South Africa and we are in China. We might just have to get married on the Internet with a Webcam and a microphone and have our families watch online," she said.

Editor: Catherine