Yao Zhen went the extra mile, literally, to propose to his girlfriend Zhuang Jiewei.Photo provided to Shanghai Star

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Urban jungle to vertical forest

He compared several applications with GPS tracking and eventually chose one with the most stable web connection to ensure the success of his plan.

He first attempted to run the route, which stretches more than 30 km, in September, but was exhausted after completing 16 km in a little more than three hours. For his second attempt, he tried taking a taxi but the web connection kept cutting out in the car, so the application could not track the route.

Eventually, he hit upon the idea of traveling by bicycle. The whole journey was completed in five hours and he took a shot of the screen with the route spelling the words "Marry Me Kara". He felt butterflies in his stomach.

Later he asked a friend to take video footage of him jogging the route, which he played on their wedding day. However, Zhuang had an even bigger surprise in store for him.

"I had some vague idea of what he was doing, although he tried to keep it secret," she says. "I knew his destination was Datong High School. So I stood in front of the school gate, holding a banner saying 'Yes'".

At the wedding, she showed him the picture of her standing at the destination of his proposal. They were both moved to tears.

"I appreciate her idea. She made a good ending for the proposal and made our wedding perfect," says Yao.

The two sweethearts attended the same university in Shanghai. In 2009, when they were both juniors, Yao, who majored in mathematics, began to pursue Zhuang, a French major.

"She's pretty and sweet with an adorable ponytail. She's special," Yao says.

They began chatting by text message late at night when Zhuang suffered insomnia.

"I didn't know until years later that he intentionally stayed up late, playing with his dog or computer games so that he could talk to me on the phone after midnight when I couldn’t fall asleep," she says.