He invited citizens to put up photographs of child beggars on his microblog - a webpage where a person can post short messages.

Inspired by this idea, university students are posting photos of those who are single on microblogs.

A brief caption includes information like the person's name, age, star sign, major subject, name of college, height, weight and hometown and says something along the lines of: 'He/She ... hopes to meet his/her Miss/Mr Right. If you are interested, send him/her a message.'

About 10,000 students have joined this activity on microblogs hosted by Sina.com. A microblog called 'Shoot readily to rescue singles at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies' already has 5,000 followers.

At several universities in the province, a 'rescue union' has been set up to encourage students to upload profiles of their schoolmates.

Xu Yanyu, the blogger behind 'Shoot readily to rescue singles at Jinan University', says it is a good way for youngsters to make friends.

'I think it serves as a platform for different people to meet and get to know each other,' she says.

Not all students are happy about their personal details being posted on microblogs. Chen Zixuan from Sun Yat-sen University is one who is annoyed by the trend.

'My photo and information have been put on the internet without my permission. Some strangers sent me messages, but I do not want to have contact with them,' he says.

Su Miaoxia from the South China University of Technology thinks of it as a type of blind dating.

'I think it is all hype rather than a platform for meeting friends,' she says. 'Even though I am single, I don't need the 'union' to rescue me.'