Alexander Pieter Cirk, 41, recently flew from Holland to Hunan province in the hope of meeting his online girlfriend, a Chinese woman known only as Zhang. But he ended up spending 10 days waiting at Changsha airport, after she failed to show up. And he has won little sympathy in China.
Mr Cirk told Chinese media that he met Ms Zhang, 26, in an app two months ago and romance blossomed. He decided to fly to visit her, but when he got to Hunan found no-one had come to meet him.
He refused to leave the airport for the next 10 days, and was eventually taken to hospital suffering physical exhaustion. Ms Zhang contacted the TV channel a day after the report aired to give her side, saying that she had thought it had all been a joke.
“We had advanced our romantic relationship but later he seemed a little callous towards me,” Ms Zhang told Hunan TV. “One day he sent me a photo of air tickets abruptly and I thought it was a joke. He didn’t contact me later.”
Ms Zhang also added that by the time Mr Cirk arrived at the airport, she was away having plastic surgery in another province and had turned off her phone.
Ms Zhang says she called Mr Cirk in hospital, after which they had a two hour conversation and discussed the Dutch man’s ordeal.