By Li Hongmei

A Beijing woman wed and divorced three men over the course of five months, and for once it's got nothing to do with the gold-digging, power-seeking stereotype often unfairly put on Chinese girls.

The true gold-diggers in this story are real estate brokers backing the prolific bride. According to the Beijing News, Beijing women are marrying "foreigners", referring here to those from outside of Beijing and without a Beijing Hukou (household registration), to enable them to buy property in the capital, promptly divorcing them soon after.

Following an audit, government investigators discovered that brokerage agencies were actually searching for and employing eligible Beijing natives to marry for property.

Beijing's real estate prices have skyrocketed as of late, and it's hard for these "foreigners" to buy homes in Beijing except when they can produce tax documents and fit in with many other requisites, say, they need to be certified to have a long enough stay and they have to stay as they have a stable career.

So, this clever "divorce support" arrangement provides some benefit for both sides. Agencies rake in hefty fees while "foreigners" are able to buy up to two homes easily, with no tax documents needed.

No one knows how long this trend may have been going on. Officials have vowed to start cracking down on these ingenious real estate agencies.