Kalpana Tamang was just 19 when she left her home in Bhotekoshi, Sindhupalchowk, for Kathmandu in search of work and a better future. Tall, slim, with a long, pointed nose and cheeks that drew comparisons to a “princess with apple-red blush,” she found a job as a salesgirl in a Thamel handicraft store. Her beauty didn’t go unnoticed — among the many who admired her was a 43-year-old Chinese man, introduced through a regular customer.

At first, he came as a customer, then as a friend, and soon, as someone who showered her with attention and lavish gifts — including a brand-new iPhone 11 Pro Max. He spoke of comfort, prosperity, and a glamorous life in China, but little about himself. She knew there was an age gap, but in her mind, the chance to escape poverty outweighed the difference.

By early 2020, their connection had grown. Then the COVID-19 lockdown began. Around April or May, her cousin — her roommate near Naya Buspark — returned to the village. With the city streets empty and days stretching endlessly, Kalpana and the man found themselves spending long hours together, sometimes in his apartment, sometimes in hers. They cooked, talked late into the night, shared secrets, and the atmosphere between them shifted.

One evening, laughter over shared tea turned into a quiet stillness neither broke. A gentle brush of his hand, a lingering gaze — the space between them disappeared. That night, the boundary of their relationship crossed into intimacy for the first time. From then on, they were inseparable. “He treated me like I was the only person in his world,” Kalpana would later recall. By the time she turned 20, marriage felt like the natural next step.

The wedding was legal, modest, and, in her eyes, the beginning of a secure future. But once they reached China, the man who had once been tender quickly revealed another side. Affection gave way to control; her movements were restricted, her phone access limited. Then came demands she had never imagined — he tried to force her into sexual encounters with his friends. Kalpana openly retaliated, refusing outright to comply, which only fueled his anger. Violence soon replaced whatever love she thought she knew. It was then she also learned he was divorced, a fact he had concealed from her. “I was not a wife,” she would say bitterly. “I was a servant and a commodity.”

Her world became a cage. She gave birth to a son, now two years old, but the child became another chain — without custody rights in China, returning to Nepal meant leaving him behind. Trapped, she endured years of emotional and physical abuse.

Kalpana’s ordeal mirrors a broader, disturbing reality. According to Nepal’s Department of Immigration, 135 Nepali women registered marriages with Chinese men in Kathmandu in just 14 months, with hundreds more suspected across the country. Rights groups say many of these “marriages” are arranged by brokers — often Nepali women already married to Chinese nationals — who target poor, uneducated, or marginalized women. They promise glamour and security but deliver victims into isolation, domestic violence, and, in some cases, forced prostitution.

Between October 2023 and October 2024, 184 women were returned from China, while 41 were stopped at the airport in just two months over trafficking suspicions. Yet official rescues remain rare — only five women have been formally repatriated. Former NHRC member Mohna Ansari calls it “a trafficking pipeline hiding in plain sight.”

Authorities have introduced requirements for basic Chinese language skills and a No Objection Certificate from the Chinese Embassy before marriage migration, but forged documents remain common. The Chinese Embassy has not responded publicly to detailed trafficking allegations, and requests for comment went unanswered.

In 2025, Kalpana finally returned to Nepal after five years, in what she describes as a “compromised relationship” dictated by her child’s future. Her story is a stark warning — that behind the promises of cross-border romance lies a darker truth many only discover when it’s too late.

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Images used in this story are for representation purposes only and are not real.