China's surrogate mothers see business boom in year of the dragon

Guardian: Two years after giving away the baby boy she'd carried for nine months, Gao cries less. His new mum treats him well, and she finds comfort in the smiling family photos uploaded online. Besides, she has her own biological seven-year-old to care for – and she's busy searching for another infertile couple seeking a womb.

Gao is one of China's surrogate mothers working underground for vast sums of money to deliver children to wannabe parents. The "rent a womb" industry, which inhabits a legal grey area, came under fire in December when it emerged a wealthy couple in the southern city of Guangzhou paid nearly 1m yuan (£100,000) to have eight babies simultaneously, using two surrogates. For a country that limits families to one child, the babaotai chuanwen or "eight baby scandal" – unearthed when the babies' portrait was used to advertise a photography studio – made national headlines.