Although dragons may scare some people, many young Chinese couples are determined to have a child this year despite pressures their offspring may face in coming years.

A doctor in Hong Kong expects a 5 percent rise in births in the Year of the Dragon. Shanghai is expecting 180,000 dragon babies this year.

Maternity wards in Shanghai's hospitals were crowded during the Chinese New Year holiday.

At the 10th People's Hospital, more than 40 babies were born during the first five days of the lunar New Year. Medical workers were forced to put extra beds in every maternity ward to accommodate the new mothers and babies.

Zhou Wen said her son's birth in the Year of the Dragon was a surprise. "He was due about a week before the New Year. I think he'll bring us good luck, as the dragon is a symbol of wisdom and bravery."

Zhou and her husband named the child Wang Zhoulin, with "lin" meaning "dragon." The same character has been given to several other "dragon babies" born at the same hospital.

In Beijing, every bed at the city's Maternity Hospital has been booked through August. The hospital has decided to limit expectant mothers to 1,000 every month in order to ensure space in the delivery room when their babies are due.

Li Jing, an expectant mother in Jinan, eastern Shandong Province, is already fed up with having to wait several hours for a prenatal check.

"I sort of 'planned' for the baby to be born in the Year of the Dragon, because the whole family believes a dragon baby is auspicious," said Li, who is due in April.

"But so many dragon babies are due this year. It will be hard for them to enter kindergartens and schools in a couple of years," she said.

Li has good reason to worry, as all the recent baby booms, which happened in 2000, the last Year of the Dragon, the auspicious year of the "Golden Pig" in 2007 and in 2008, the year China hosted the Olympics, were followed by shortages in resources ranging from available delivery room beds to openings at kindergartens and primary schools.

Jinan-based office worker Yang Qin remembered having to offer "deal sweeteners" to a kindergarten chief, and then to a primary school principal, to secure a place for her daughter, who was born in 2000.

In Beijing, some "Olympic babies" have been waiting to enter kindergarten, despite the government's efforts over the past two years to open more kindergartens.

(Shanghai Daily, January 29, 2012 )