Up to 12 percent of young people covered in a survey in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, approved of "one night stands" and nearly 10 percent said they would consider such liaisons.
The survey, which was released by the Guangzhou committee of the Communist Youth League on Thursday, polled some 2,000 people aged 14-35 in the city, of which 76.6 percent are unmarried.
The committee called for development of a healthy social concept of marriage for young people because the rising pressure from work and life has challenged traditional views of marriage.
The survey also found that the number of young migrant workers in Guangzhou increased by 10 percent from 979,900 in 2000 to 3.4 million in 2010, indicating a rising number of young people have moved to the southern Chinese city to make a living.