Friday, May 30, 2008

Safe Sex Hotels



I have a friend who flies into Beijing regularly and I saw her this weekend.

And she wanted me to see the bathroom in her hotel room.

"Take a look!" she said.

There, on top of the toilet, next to the rolled up bathmat was a box of condoms.

On the side is a small drawing of a condom, in case people still didn't know what they were. And inside were five of them vacuum sealed.

"I was just here last weekend and they didn't put that there," she observed.

It's the latest municipal government effort to prevent sexually-transmitted diseases.

All guest houses, hotels and scenic resorts are required to put condoms in all their washrooms, nightclubs, and bath houses. Even construction sites are expected to have condom vending machines. This is supposed to be done before the end of 2008.

But really it's for August. The government thinks that with the upcoming Olympics, it's important for all visitors to practice safe sex.

While the hotels must stock the condoms, the city health bureau said it was up to the hotels to decide how much to charge for the prophylactics.

State media reported 18,543 new cases of HIV/AIDS in China in the first half of 2007, close to the total of 2006.

So here -- enjoy yourself -- have a condom... or five.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

westerners are famous for their sex indiscretion and rowdiness. in order to prevent std/hiv i commend this initiative of the health officials. it is hoped the foreign visitors will be more self disciplined in order to curb this silent epidemic.