Alexander Pieter Cirk, a Dutchman, was hospitalized in China for exhaustion after flying from the Netherlands to meet an online girlfriend at the airport, where he waited for 10 days.
The Sun reported Monday that Cirk, 41, flew to Changsha, China, to meet the 26-year-old woman he called Zhang. But the woman never showed up, so Cirk waited and waited.
Photos of Cirk started to appear online showing him resting on benches at the airport waiting for his would-be girlfriend, and soon the story of the broken-hearted Dutchman went viral.
"We had advanced our romantic relationship but later he seemed a little callous toward me," Zhang reportedly told CCTV, according to the Sun, adding that she thought Cirk was joking about actually flying to China. "One day he sent me a photo of air tickets abruptly and I thought it was a joke. He didn't contact me later."
The Daily Mail reported that Cirk's lack of sleep and food caused him to pass out because of his severe diabetes and emergency crews were called to the airport for treatment.
Zhang told news reporters she had plastic surgery in Zhengzhou while Cirk was at the airport and she had turned off her cellphone not knowing that he came to China.
Cirk booked a trip back to the Netherlands for Monday while Zhang said she still hopes to meet him once she has recovered from her plastic surgery, according to The Sun.
Cirk's story has been a buzz on the Chinese social media micro-blog Weibo,
according to the BBC News. The hashtag that translates to "Foreign man went to Changsha to meet his online girlfriend" has been trending in relation to the story.
"He must be stupid, why would anyone do this?" said one user, according to the BBC News.
Another user responded, "Doesn't he know that everything in China is fake?"
A particularly uncharitable user said, "Perhaps she did go to the airport, saw what he looked like, and promptly turned back around."
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