Why is falling in love called "dating"?

The word "dating" is a Cantonese dialect (Cantonese) in Cantonese.

So standard Cantonese refers to a language based on the traditional Guangzhou dialect. The phrase "Dating" comes from the traditional maritime trade saying: At that time, the Qing government was forced to open Guangzhou as the only trading port, so many foreign commercial passenger ships were parked on the Pearl River in Guangzhou. To facilitate the loading of goods, there were many "Dun ships" (foreign trade at that time). Ships are mainly used to transport goods (usually only one layer), so they use iron chains to connect the ships from the center of the river to the dock. In this way, the goods can be directly transferred from the dock to the required ship. Therefore, a chain connected with iron chains is formed on the Pearl River. Later, many Guangzhou citizens called this scene "Botuo" (meaning to use iron chains to pull up the moored boats to form a boat bridge). Later, it was described as being like lovers, and today "Dating" is no longer just a term. To describe the intimate actions of a couple at a certain moment, it also generally refers to falling in love!