Sexual Revolution Sweeping China?

By Associated Press

March 04, Foxnews

BEIJING — The no-tell motels in Beijing's university districts pulsate with sex.

Every weekend, lusty college couples make a beeline past greasy spoon restaurants and bootleg video game shops for the dim hotel lobbies to book three-hour blocks of privacy. Students fill half the simple but tidy rooms at the Cheng Lin Ming Guang Hotel, a 10-minute walk from Beijing Normal University.

China is in the midst of a sexual revolution, a byproduct of rising prosperity and looser government restrictions on private life. The relaxed attitudes about sex mark a historic turnaround from the days when love and sex were denounced as bourgeois decadence, and unisex Mao suits and drab austerity were the norm.

But the revolution is taking place largely behind closed doors, and the word "sex" — or "xing" (pronounced shing) is spoken only among close friends, and then usually in a whisper.

As a result, sex education has not kept up with sexual activity, with some unwelcome consequences. High school girls make up 80 percent of the patients at Shanghai abortion clinics during one-week school holidays, state media reported last year.

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photo: July 12, 2007: A pole dancer entertains patrons at a Beijing bar which hosts games meant to break the ice between strangers (AP)