A newly opened sperm bank in China’s southwestern city of Chongqing is struggling to cope with the volume of volunteers coming through its doors.

At a time when sperm reserves at facilities around the country are drying up, staff at the Chongqing Human Sperm Bank, which opened for business on April 11, are having to turn donors away.

Due to the rigorous testing process that all volunteers must undergo, the sperm bank can currently only accommodate 10 donors per day. The center’s deputy director Zhang Yi was quoted on April 21 by the Chongqing Evening News as assuring all those who turned up that they would eventually be seen. “Media coverage has led to sperm donation fever,” he said. “We hope it’s not a passing phase.”

Representatives for the center declined requests to be interviewed, citing a recent deluge of media interest. But news photos give an impression of the newly opened facility. In the donation room, donors can draw inspiration from photographs around the room of voluptuous-but-clothed women. And if those are not enough to excite donors, a television mounted on the wall suggests that other stimuli are available.

The bank promises compensation of up to 5,000 yuan (around $770) for each successful donation. By comparison, the monthly income of an average white-collar worker in Chongqing stands at 6,362 yuan, according to figures for the first quarter of 2016. For those who fail to meet the center’s strict requirements, the bank provides a 50-yuan travel stipend.

A widening gap between supply and demand of sperm around the country has been attributed by some to the lifting of the one-child policy at the beginning of this year. Many older couples are in a rush to try to have a second child, and they’re looking to donated sperm to increase their chances. Quoted by Shanghai party newspaper the Jiefang Daily, Chen Xiang, head of the Shanghai Human Sperm Bank, said, “Following the introduction of the two-child policy, our outpatient department has very clearly noticed that few young couples are seeking the help of doctors to have a second child. On the contrary, it is couples [hoping to have a second child] in their 40s and 50s who are on the increase.”

Increasing demand and dwindling supply are pushing sperm banks like Chongqing’s to offer large remuneration packages for successful donations. Yet while the incentive seems to have stimulated a large amount of interest in its opening week, only 24 percent of aspiring donors have met the center’s strict requirements thus far. Tan Shan, a spokeswoman for Shanghai’s Renji Hospital, to which the city’s official sperm bank belongs, told Sixth Tone that the layers upon layers of tests involved in sperm donation mean that the vast majority of donors will not end up receiving full compensation.

According to the Chongqing sperm bank’s official website, prospective donors must submit to blood and semen tests, a full-body checkup, and an investigation into the health records of family members. Six months following the completion of the donation process, which itself requires between 10 and 12 donations, the donor must pass an additional blood test for HIV.

According to the Chongqing Daily, applicants must be between 22 to 45 years old, be at least 1.65 meters tall, have “normal-looking facial features,” and hold a degree certificate from a technical college or above. Donors are also forbidden from ejaculating for three days before each appointment.

News of the new sperm bank and its relatively high payout for successful donations has been met with a mixture of enthusiasm and ridicule on social media. “At 5,000 a time I wouldn’t need to work anymore,” wrote one impressed user on microblogging platform Weibo. “It’s settled then, I’ll resign now.”

Another Web user was less positive: “Damn, now you need a degree to give sperm.”

With contributions from Li You and Wang Lianzhang.

(Header image: A doctor holds a sperm collecting cup at the Chongqing Human Sperm Bank, April 19, 2016. Bing You/VCG)