Sex and China

Today, august 19, it is chinese valentine's day, wich gives us, except for a couple of hours extra rest (the roomservice comes later due to this special day), a perfect opportunity to talk about relationships, love and sex in China.

Untill the age of 18, you can't talk about it, you can't date, it's forbidden to fall in love!

Of course, this rule results in a very ambiguous attitude: the youngsters are forced to do everything secretly, behind the back of teachers and parents. You will see very few couples, and you will never see somebody kissing. On the other hand, the parking lots next to the beach are crowded at night, and people prefer to watch the splendid view from their cars.

An alternative might be to book a hotel for one night, as pointed out by Tony, one of the translators, who has a girl friend but doesn't want his three roommates to enjoy her company too. Luckily, the hotels are well prepared, see the picture of what we found in our room.

Once they're finally 18, the girls will start looking for a future husband, and once married things only get more complicated. You'd beter like your mother-in-law, because the parents of the bride are as important as the bride hereself: problems are fixed between families, not between the bride and groom.

The mariage has to be planned on a lucky date, which means there must be an eight involved. That's why the start of the olympic games (08-08-'08) will also be the start of a lot of happy, everlasting marriages. Organising your marriage is quite simple here: you step into one of the marriage bureaus and you can choose everything you want on the big computer screens, from the dress to the pie.

You might go to a hairdresser to look as handsome as possible for your marriage, but choose your hairdresser carefully. Prostitution is forbidden, so the brothels need a cover. The former are the lowest level, masseuses are more expensive (recource: Martin, from the sailing club, we wonder why he knows).

In case you wonder why we know, chinese talk a lot.

your reporters on spot,

Barbara & Mathieu