41-year-old woman in China uses fake passport to hide age from 24-year-old boyfriend, held

The woman said she wanted to hide her real age from her boyfriend because she thought it would affect their relationship. (Representational image: Unsplash)

A 41-year-old woman in China was recently caught using a fake passport at the Beijing airport. She was allegedly using it to hide her age from her boyfriend who is 17 years her junior.

The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, gave her passport for inspection to immigration officers at the airport, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported. One of the officers noticed something "unusual" about the passport and asked to check her other documents and travel information.

Visibly flustered, the woman tried to snatch her passport to prevent the officer from inspecting it. She also urged her boyfriend to proceed through the security checks before asking the office to have a word in private.

The woman then revealed that she had two Chinese passports with different birth dates -- in one her age was 41, in the other, she was 27. She said she wanted to hide her real age from her 24-year-old boyfriend because she thought it would affect their relationship. So, when they made plans to visit Japan, the woman spent 6,500 yuan (about Rs 76,000) to get a fake passport that mentioned her age as 27.

While being questioned by immigration officers, the woman appeared to feel wronged and exclaimed in frustration: “I only changed my age”.  She was eventually fined 3,000 yuan (about Rs 35,000) and her fake passport was confiscated, SCMP reported.

The incident has triggered both humour and surprise on mainland social media.

Meanwhile, the incident sparked both humour and surprise on Chinese social media.

“She changed her birth year from 1982 to 1996; that’s a significant age gap. Didn’t her boyfriend notice before?” SCMP quoted a user as saying. “If they have true love, age shouldn’t matter. But seriously, it seems she doesn’t ‘look old’ because otherwise, how could she hide it?” said another.

“Well, not only does her boyfriend know her real age now, but even us strangers do,” added a third.

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