China Cash Bride
Stacks of 100 yuan notes were delivered as engagement gift by a Chinese lover to his future bride (Reuters)

A Chinese lover has been accused of bad taste for giving his bride-to-be 8.88m yuan (£900,000) in cash as an engagement present.

Stacks of 100 yuan notes tied up with red ribbons were delivered in 18 bamboo baskets carried by porters to the woman's house in Pujiang in Zhejiang province south of Shanghai.

The notes weighed more than 102kg (224lbs).

The load was followed by a Maserati car at the head of a motorcade of luxury vehicles ferrying the entourage of the 27-year-old groom-to-be whose family made their millions from the construction business in Yiwu city.

Local media reported that it was a tradition in Yiwu to deliver 18 baskets as an engagement present. Normally, the baskets are filled with ordinary wedding gifts such as bottles of liquor and food and only a smaller amount of cash.

The two families had agreed on the 8.88 figure because eight is an auspicious number in Chinese.

Photos of the bamboo baskets staked with money went viral on Chinese social media but the extravagant engagement ceremony was criticised by many as over-the-top.

"It's not so much marrying a wife, but buying one. If they really loved each other, there would be no need for such extravagance," wrote one user of China's popular Sina weibo microblog, AFP reported.

"They're cheapening the value of both marriage and themselves," said another.

China