I wonder what is to become of those legs...
Chinese sex theme park shut down before opening
Edward Wong, New York Times
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
(05-19) 04:00 PDT Beijing --

Sex in China has a long and varied history, as evidenced by accounts of carnal excess in "The Plum in the Golden Vase," a Ming-era classic, and more recent tales of Mao's insatiable appetite.

But an attempt to open the first sex theme park in China was quashed by local officials over the weekend, well before construction was completed.

Officials in the sprawling city of Chongqing, where Love Land was being built, recently became incensed over the risque nature of the park and ordered its destruction, according to a report published Sunday in the Chongqing Evening News, a state-run newspaper.

Angry Internet postings about the park had been proliferating, and China Daily, the official English-language newspaper, published an article about the park Friday.

Photographs online showed workers Saturday pulling down a pair of white plastic legs and hips that appear to be the bottom half of a giant female mannequin towering over the park entrance. The mannequin is wearing a red G-string.

The park's main investor, Lu Xiaoqing, had planned to display naked human sculptures, giant models of genitals, sex-technique "workshops" and a photography exhibition about the history of sex, according to China Daily. The displays would have included lessons on safe sex and the proper use of condoms.

Lu told China Daily that the park was being built "for the good of the public." Love Land would be useful for sex education, he said, and help adults "enjoy a harmonious sex life."

He added: "Sex is a taboo subject in China, but people really need to have more access to information about it."

Lu was building the park in an entertainment zone of Chongqing near the Yangtze River. Chongqing, a booming city built on hills on either side of the Yangtze, once served as the wartime capital of the Kuomintang government. Like other fast-growing cities in China, it has a reputation for loose moral standards.

Officials could not be reached for comment late Monday afternoon.

Chinese approach sex with an attitude that seems alternately more prudish and more open than that of Westerners.

The Chinese government, for example, regularly censors movies and other works of art that are deemed to have overly graphic depictions of sex. ("Plum in the Golden Vase" was banned by imperial decree.)

On the other hand, prostitution, while officially illegal, is practiced openly, with full-service "massage parlors" and "hair salons" found everywhere. Officials and businessmen often patronize these establishments or keep mistresses, a fact well known to most Chinese.