Lonely hearts get lessons in love

Ruan says about 95 percent of his students are male and the majority of them are "otaku" (indoors men) with jobs in the IT industry and an average age of 27.

Zhang Sanqiang, 27, falls into this category. He was Ruan's student three months ago. Even though Zhang is currently single, he says he got a girlfriend immediately after taking the "pick up girls" class.

"There's no course called ‘how to communicate with girls' at school and for those of us whose working environment is packed with men we have no chances to get to know women. Ruan's class is extremely practical. He helped me avoid some silly mistakes like, never buddy up with the girl you like too much and don't invade her private space," says Zhang Sanqiang, who works at an information technology company in Shanghai.

Spending his weekdays teaching classes via Internet and weekends traveling between China's biggest cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou, for private classes, Ruan's business is booming. He started teaching his pick-up techniques in Beijing in 2008, after his post on "how to pick up girls" received thousands of replies online.

"Guys that couldn't find a girlfriend think what I said works. They tried to approach me via the Internet and they tried to call me — it was only natural to start the private consulting business," says Ruan, adding he works on his own, and has no desire to grow the business.

His class has been divided into two parts — theoretical and practical. "I'd bring students to places such as a popular shopping mall or university campus to practice ‘gut'," he says.

The idea of "gut practicing" is simple — to get as many numbers as possible from women in the mall or campus. But before that, get some basic knowledge of a woman's way of thinking. Advice from a personal stylist is also necessary.

A retired male model from South Korea is working with Ruan as the image consultant in Beijing to help his students. For an extra 1,000 yuan, he can design your hairstyle and take you shopping for two sets of clothes including shoes. Of course, the client has to pay the bill for the clothes.