School may be out soon for Beijing's university students but more grads than ever are vowing their campus love affairs will live forever, according to Mirror Evening News.

The paper reports 74 percent of students in relationships plan to continue their university pairings after graduation. Around 26 percent say they will part after graduation to pursue lives in different cities and because of other pressures, according to the paper and an online survey by www.cnr.cn.

"Now, college lovers are much more mature and rational when deciding the future of their relationship," said L Hongdi, a senior at the Beijing Foreign Language University (BFLU). "When they graduate, many will choose to live and work in the same city. It is easy to find a job but it's much more difficult to find Mr Right."

Student Zhang Qian said in a comment on Renren.com, a social networking website popular with young people, that couples' decisions are very telling.

"Graduation is really a test for college love," Zhang wrote. "It may need one of the two lovers to sacrifice his or her job so that both can stay in the same city. True love will find a way to make this happen."

Some college sweethearts are even so committed to stay together after graduation this year that they plan to tie the knot before graduation.

"We cherished our pure college love much more after we read that many graduates have no time to find love and therefore rely on matchmaking services after they start work," Tao Xinyu and Wang Xiaochi, a couple that plan to marry in August, told the Mirror Evening News.

The pair said working together from an early age will reduce their expenses and mean they will pay off their mortgage earlier than other couples who wait.

The fact that 74 percent of college lovers hope to stay together after graduation is in stark contrast to a past trend that saw most on-campus relationships snuffed out.

Just four years ago, about 85 percent of college lovers chose to part after graduation, according to a survey from www.chinanews.com.cn.

In addition to the likelihood of having to work in different cities, input from families and interest in new relationships were the main reason why so many college love affairs ended with the end of term.

"It is hard to say whether parting after graduation is good or not for college lovers," a student counselor at the BFLU told METRO.

"It depends on whether the two are working near to one another and whether they are really in love."

Xiong Hanzhong, director of the Beijing Youth Stress Management Service Center, told the newspaper that the latest survey suggests students are taking their love lives more seriously.

"The trend that more graduates choose to continue their college love shows they are mature now and attach more importance to their relationship," he said.

"Working together for the future can give them both practical support, especially when one of them is in urgent need of it," Xiong said.

"Such support between lovers is of crucial importance to reduce the pressure of work and life."

(China Daily June 9, 2010)