A 28-year-old woman from Videbæk in western Jutland is married and living in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, four years after changing her Tinder location as a joke.
Julie Odsgaard’s story was reported on September 23, 2026 by DR. In January 2022, a friend suggested they change her location in the dating app to Korea for fun. Hours later she was in a video chat with Jiayi Li.
Odsgaard told DR journalist Anders Agger that it was the most remarkable conversation she had ever had on a dating app. She describes having met her own copy in another person. The two continued talking across more than 8,000 kilometers.
Separated by Covid restrictions
According to DR, the couple could not meet in person because of China’s Covid-19 lockdowns. They video-chatted for about a year before restrictions were lifted and Li asked her to come to China. Odsgaard says she had been fascinated by the country since visiting it in 2007 at the age of nine.
She recalls half crying and embracing Li in the arrival hall, where he had waited for hours in a suit. She says the meeting lived up to every expectation. Odsgaard has since traded Videbæk, with its 4,300 residents, for Hangzhou and its 6.5 million inhabitants.
The couple married last year in traditional Hanfu clothing, as reported by DR. They live in a small apartment with their cats, one of which is named Trump. They earn their living as influencers on the Chinese platform Rednote, making videos about Chinese history and culture.
Speaking to Agger, Odsgaard said she believes a democratic system would create too much instability in a country of 1.4 billion people. She said Danes should not assume their own system is perfect. She also acknowledged that some topics feel too sensitive for her to discuss.
Her parents have visited her in China, and the couple traveled to western Jutland in the spring of 2026. They plan to return to Denmark for a church wedding. Odsgaard told DR she intends to live, have children, and die in China, and that she has never doubted her choice.
Why the story is out now
The interview is tied to DR’s program Anne og Anders i Kina, in which Odsgaard shows Agger her life in Hangzhou. Billed Bladet reports that the series premiered on DR1 on September 20, 2026, and was filmed in China during the spring.
A preview by Digitalt.tv, published August 31, 2026, described the episode as following a nearly two-year online romance. Per the preview, Odsgaard moved to China before she had met Li face to face. Her case sits alongside broader shifts in how Danes use dating apps.
