Beauty sells, it is what psychologists sometimes call the beauty premium. Attractive people get good things in life - attractive children get off the hook when they're in trouble, and attractive adults are preferentially hired and promoted.

A Chinese saying goes like this: you find your official position too low when you are in Beijing; you find yourself poor when landing in Guangzhou; and you regret that you get married too early when you come to Chengdu, Sichuan province.

The capital of the southwestern province is famous for its pretty women. According to Huaxi Metropolitan News the authorities in Chengdu's Jinjiang district will soon publish a report on how many beauties its busiest commercial area has and how eye-catching their pretty faces are.

Sure, beauties can be counted, even without a fair amount of math. But what a beauty is remains controversial. It must be a pretty complicated job to set a definition of beauty. What the report is for, however, is not a hard nut to crack.

Evolutionary psychology makes the argument that we evolved to seek out and worship physical signs of good breeding potential, such as muscle tone, clear skin, full lips and for women, a waist-to-hip ratio of 7/10 (that could translate into a 25-inch waist to 36-inch hips).

Every region of the country has been trying to present its unique side to lure investors. Chengdu is turning its attention to its pretty young ladies.

But Jinjiang district's decision to focus on the attractiveness of its young women's physical appearance could be a fairly risky undertaking.

What does the district expect the outside investors to invest in? The young women?