Alexander Pieter Cirk waited for 10 straight days inside a Chinese airport for a woman he met online. Screen Grab from Weibo
As the old saying goes, “ Love is patient, love is kind,” but one Dutchman may have taken this a step too far.
Holland native Alexander Pieter Cirk embarked on a 4,500-kilometer journey across the globe to meet the love of his life. However, he didn’t get the happy ending he’d always dreamed of.
The 41-year-old recently flew from his hometown to Hunan province in China, in hopes of meeting a 26-year-old Chinese woman known only as Zhang, a BBC news report said.
The unlikely pair, who was about to meet for the first time after chatting online for two months, agreed to meet at the Changsha Huanghua International Airport.
Upon his arrival, Cirk patiently waited for his online lover to show up, but she never did. The love-stricken man stayed in the airport for 10 days, and made himself comfortable by lounging in the facility’s waiting area.
Airport personnel soon took notice of Cirk’s predicament, but he was reportedly reluctant to leave the airport for fear of missing out on the woman he met on a dating app.
Officials only managed to remove him from his spot after he grew weak and had to be hospitalized due to physical exhaustion. The jilted Dutchman was reportedly discharged on Monday (Tuesday in Manila) and has since returned home to Holland.
Photo from Weibo
Ms. Zhang, meanwhile, contacted the Chinese media upon learning the report to air her side.
“We had advanced our romantic relationship but later he seemed a little callous towards me,” Zhang was quoted as saying in the report, while adding that she did not show up because she did not take his actions seriously. “One day he sent me a photo of air tickets abruptly and I thought it was a joke. He didn’t contact me later.”
She also said that by the time Cirk arrived at the airport, she was having plastic surgery in another province and had turned off her phone.
An image of Ms. Zhang. Photo from Weibo
The hashtag “Foreign man went to Changsha to meet his online girlfriend,” meanwhile, has been trending on the micro-blogging site Weibo after the incident gained media attention.
“He must be stupid, why would anyone do this?” one user asked, while another said, “Doesn’t he know that everything in China is fake?”
Others, however, showed sympathy. “Here’s a guy taking a relationship seriously, don’t play around with his feelings,” one netizen said. “If you don’t want him anymore, tell him so he can go home.”
Despite the heartbreak and exhaustion, Cirk and Zhang have reportedly mended their relationship and continued talking online once more.
The pair plans to meet after they’ve both recovered. Khristian Ibarrola