Brow: Cost 1,800 yuan ($231). Reshaping the brow helps create longer, slender looking eyebrows. Eyelids: Cost 2,000 yuan ($256). Double eyelid operations are one of the most popular cosmetic operations for Chinese women. It also removes wrinkles. Nose: Cost 1,200-3,600 yuan ($154-462). The procedure enhances the protrusion of the nose. Chin: Cost 2,000 -10,000 yuan ($256-1,282). Implants are added to the chin to further change the shape of the face. Cheek: Cost 6,000 yuan ($769). The cheekbones are made to look more angular, so the face becomes more slender.

Sha Sha is a postgraduate student at a prestigious university and her academic performance is outstanding but her "ordinary looks" have haunted her all her life.

The 21-year-old said her parents were good looking and her family and friends had always ribbed her about her unlucky disposition. "What a shame she didn't take after her parents," they would say.

Sha Sha was determined to change. She worked hard to excel in schools but no matter how excellent her results were she still lacked confidence. When she went to job interviews, holding a resume in her senior year, she was turned down again and again. In Sha Sha's mind, better-looking applicants seemed to be getting all the good jobs.

Related readings: Chinese standards for instant beauty Face off for the celebrity obsessed Plastic beauties squeak down the catwalk

The idea of cosmetic surgery had already been running through her mind.

When her parents became aware of her dilemma, they promised her 100,000 yuan ($12,797) to go to South Korea to have cosmetic surgery after she completed her postgraduate studies.

For the first time in her life, Sha Sha felt a sense of hope.

The student is not alone. Facing the prospect of no job and no promising future, more and more college students are rushing to cosmetic surgeons.

They believe an investment in cosmetic surgery could give them better chances in the job market.

New attitudes

Compared to a decade ago, today's society has a much more tolerant attitude towards cosmetic surgery. A minor adjustment to the appearance of a woman's face is already an acceptable fashion accessory.

According to an online survey conducted pointedly by CCTV and Sina.com this year, 45 percent of the women respondents expressed the desire to have cosmetic surgery.

In August, the Hunan Economic TV Station funded 15 girls, selected out of thousands of applicants, to receive whole body cosmetic surgery. The attendants had to show the whole transforming process to the TV audience.

Sha Sha heard about the show and applied.

"Cosmetic surgery is not as magic as I had thought before. It did not turn me into the beauty I expected to be," said Sha Sha, who sacrificed three months of her life to fulfil her cosmetic dream. She could have been preparing for her graduation thesis or job hunting at the time.

Sha Sha feels she is now better looking after surgery. And what she was particularly happy about was that she looked much slimmer after liposuction, a medical procedure designed for the permanent removal of fatty tissue.

Her mother did not even recognize her at the first sight. During the recovery time the television station did not allow them to see any family or friends.

Painful surgeries

The surgery days for her were nightmares. In one month, she had three major operations, orthodontic treatment, and liposuction on legs, arms and buttocks, as well as facial surgery.

As she was not sensitive to anaesthesia, she had to suffer from unbearable pain during the operations.

During the first days after liposuction, blood was oozing from the wounds. "I was lying on the bed trussed up tightly in bandages. A foul smell from the wounds often rose to my nose," she said.

The facial surgery was the most unforgettable part for her. It involved cutting off part of her lower jawbone and left cheekbone and grinding her right cheekbone. "My face swelled like a steam bun after the surgery. It felt like my whole face was falling off," she said.

Sha Sha is not the only one who believes looks are important for success.

Wang Yan, 28 and a company employee, came to the Beijing Shijitan Hospital to have eyelid surgery. She believed correcting the drooping eyelids as well as bags and bulges around the eyes could make her look younger. One year ago, she came here to receive an abdomen liposuction surgery, despite being only slightly overweight.

"In the first week after the surgery, I felt aches on the abdomen, which was a bit swollen. The skin there felt a bit hard," she said.

Now her abdomen was flat, which made her fit into clothes that were impossible to wear before.

Wang believed it was worthwhile to be a better looking at the cost of physical pains as she considered the discomfort with the flaws in body image for women was similar to that of people with the tumors.

However, she was cautious about the types of cosmetic surgery she received. "It should be a minor adjustment. The operations should be mature and safe," she said.

Chasing beauty goes beyond age. More and more old people are signing up for a younger appearance.

Eighty-year-old Chen Dan looks like she is in her 50s. On her face, one can barely find wrinkles.

Granny Chen received a wrinkles-removing surgery five years ago. "I felt the doctors made a cut on my forehead and then sew it up. The whole surgery was simple but the troublesome deep wrinkles on my forehead disappeared after it," she recalled.

Cosmetic surgery gave her face a new look, but brought a little embarrassment as well.

When she was on the bus, no young people would like to give up their seats to a "young" lady like her.