SHANGHAI: Ageing married women here are desperately trying to hang on to their husbands by learning how better to please them.

According to Weiqing Marriage Services Co Ltd, more than 300 insecure women have signed up a free course it will run in October.

The month-long "camp" aims to teach women how to "better manage their marriages", course manager Ming Li said.

"The training will include instruction on manners, apparel and, most importantly, how to deal with other people such as husbands, children, mothers-in-law and ex-wives," she said.

She did not say whether a similar course would be held for husbands.

Among the people to have signed up for the course are several soon-to-be wives, who are desperate to learn how to prevent problems in the future, Ming said.

The women who are already married just want to know how to stop their husbands from cheating on them with younger women, she said.

The course will include lectures from psychologists, sociologists and marriage consultants, Ming said, without saying whether the speakers would be men or women.

Most of the women who have signed up are aged between 35 and 55. "These women are starting to look old and some of their husbands are likely to be involved with pretty young girls," she said.

Some of them are "troubled" by the fact their husbands are cheating on them, she said.

Although China Daily did not speak to any of the women enrolled on the course, Ming said she had spoken to a self-confessed cheating husband, surnamed Wu.

"At first, I wasn't doing anything wrong," Wu said.

"But then I became so fed up with my wife accusing me of having an affair that I went out and got myself a mistress."

Some Chinese experts have said women should be aware they could easily lose their men. In China, 40-something men are in their prime, have flourishing careers and stable incomes, an anonymous expert said.

Wives at that age are no longer attractive, as they are fat and have saggy skin, he said.

Gu Jun, a sociology professor at Shanghai University, said: "Chinese woman usually take the subordinate position in their marriages, but why is the camp only for women, and not also for men?"

Ming said another husband of one of the women who had signed up for the course complained that his wife did not follow "his lifestyle".

The 80-year-old said he did not like seeing his wife exercising and dancing with friends in the community yard.

Being rich in China does not mean all are living like aristocrats, a recent 2008 Hurun Report of New Aristocracy, said.

"Being rich and living the life of an aristocrat are not the same thing," Rupert Hoogewerf, author of the report, said. He is better known by his Chinese name Hu Run.

An aristocrat in China generally spends about 4.57 million yuan ($672,000) a year, and much of it on a premium standard of living.

Hoogewerf said the report was compiled after analyzing the lifestyles of more than 100 super rich people in China and not all spend lavishly.

The report describes the life of a typical aristocrat.

He is someone in his 40s, lives in Shanghai with his wife and has a son about 17 years old studying in Britain.

He owns a villa in the city and an apartment in Beijing, has four cars in his garage including a Rolls-Royce Phantom for himself and a Mercedes-Benz ML500 for his wife.

He enjoys playing golf and has paid more than 3.5 million yuan to join golf clubs in Shanghai and Beijing.

Sometimes, he and his friends will charter a plane to play golf in Hainan province.

He has four watches including a Vacheron Constantin and an Oyster Perpetual Datejust, and his wedding ring, very likely from Tiffany Legacy.

He has recently developed a liking for wines. Chateau Lafite Rothschild, costing 226,656 yuan per crate, can be found in his cellar.

He smokes Davidoff Classic No 2.

He is now more involved in charitable causes compared to last year.

Hoogewerf said that within a week of the May 12 earthquake, the top 100 richest people in the country had donated $120 million, about 10 percent of the total donations received by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

"More and more people are curious about the lifestyles of the rich in China. We want to give them an insight," he said.

Hoogewerf estimates that currently there are only 50,000 people in the country who can maintain such a lifestyle.

Last year 150,000 people could be considered having led an aristocrat life at a cost of 38 million yuan.

However, some entrepreneurs do not want to pursue the lifestyles of their peers.

Yu Minhong, CEO of the New Oriental Group, ranking 134 in 2007 Hurun China Rich List said: "I do not know where I can spend so much money. Maybe one day, I will buy a villa costing millions of yuan, but not now,"

"Every one has his or her own lifestyle."

Liu Mingming, 24, an office worker said: "It is their life. They can indulge in whatever they want, so long as it makes them happy.

"What surprise me is that I had no idea China has so many rich men."