Despite being illegal, childless Shanghainese couples risk their all to tap into the surrogate market, thus ensuring a flourishing underground trade with couples paying upwards of 400,000 yuan (US$60,114) for a baby.

"Every day, leaflets of small reproductive clinics are scattered outside hospitals. Yes, there is a huge demand," according to Sun Xiaoxi, deputy director of Shanghai Jiai Genetics and IVF Institute.

In a January 2015 report, Shanghai's health authority claimed that the city likely had about 400,000 infertile couples, with about 10 to 20 percent of them open to assisted reproductive methods. Sun said in 2015 alone, more than 48,000 couples in Shanghai looked at assisted reproductive methods. About 80 percent of them tried to have test-tube babies.

It is illegal in China to trade sperm, egg and embryos, and medical personnels and institutes are banned from getting involved in surrogacy. But despite that, the trade in having a baby with their DNA, but born to a surrogate mother, has continued to thrive. Much of it has got to do with high infertility rate, relaxation of birth control measures and the traditional imperative to have children.

"Like every other metropolis, locals don't marry at a young age. But when they grow older, they find it difficult to conceive," Sun said.

A legal researcher from Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Liu Changqiu, told thepaper.cn that at least 10,000 Chinese couples had tried surrogacy this year.

All-inclusive service

Ye Tao, who works for a surrogacy agency called Xibei on Guoquan Road in Yangpu District, told Shanghai Daily that they offered "all-inclusive service, like helping find doctors and surrogate mothers."

"We charge between 400,000 yuan to 700,000 yuan depending on the needs, like if they have a preference for boys," he said. Ye said all the doctors are from top hospitals.

"We arrange the visits to the hospitals. They are then taken to their clinics to get the egg and the sperm. The process is safe and the success rate is high," Ye said.

A surrogate mother has to be healthy and under the age of 32. By "lending her womb" for about 10 months, she earns about 200,000 yuan. Clients can choose if they want the agency to take care of her or if they prefer to do it themselves.

Zhang Yan from Hunan Province earned nearly 200,000 yuan as a surrogate mother this year, thepaper.cn reported. The 31-year-old said she was desperate for money to raise her 2-1/2-year old son after her husband divorced her.

During pregnancy she lived with other surrogate mothers in a three-bedroom apartment rented by the agency.

Another divorced woman, Li Fang, gave similar reasons to get into the trade. Li also has a 3-year-old daughter. During pregnancy, she rarely went out over fears that she would bump into some acquaintances. Worse, she even refused to meet her parents during pregnancy.

The website of the agency, Xibei, claims that it was established in 2005 and had arranged more than 3,000 cases of surrogacy. The clients come from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the USA.

Lawyer Liu Chunquan said only medical personnels and institutes are punished for helping in surrogacy. Agencies are punished for petty crimes like fraud or illegal medical practice, while surrogate mothers and clients are never punished, which has ensured the survival of the industry.

China's legal planners had looked at the possibility of banning any form of surrogacy and related trade before introducing the amended population and family planning law this year.

"We think surrogacy is a very complicated and sophisticated thing. We need to further discuss it," said Zhang Chunsheng, director of the legislative affairs department with the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

"It's a sensitive issue, and we have to follow the current law. But for me, I sympathize with those infertile couples. Some women want to have a baby but they just can't," Sun said.

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