Hotels with no condoms get fined
According to a newspaper, a Chinese province has taken the unusual step of fining hotels and bars if they do not provide condoms.
This news itself is a kind of odd news. But having condom is not a big news in this the country, as the country has taken the one-child policy for years.
What I am surprised most is the change of the country during past 20 years.
Most communist countries in the world, especially in Asia, controlled citizens and foreigners severely until late 1980’s. (For what?)
In the case of China, each floor of each hotel had warder in front of elevator or steps.
So, physically, it was impossible to bring a person with an opposite gender to the hotel room, unless the person was my wife and registered at the front desk. By the way, at that time, I was about to get arrested at the Karaoke place where a man can sing with a woman in a small private room (maybe illegally). Just singing with a girl was a reason for arrest.
On one occasion, a Japanese female customer living in the country and I had to have a meeting late at night. As there was no space, like a coffee shop, to have a brief meeting, I brought her to my room. Because we both are Japanese, the warder seemed to think that we are a married couple. However, during our meeting in a room, front desk person called my room a few times to check what we were doing…
Now, there’s nobody at each floor of each hotel. The government orders hotels to have condoms…
From time to time, I can not help feeling China in some part gets freer than Japan, the country full of social pressure…
(Quote)
Hotels with no condoms get fined - Yahoo! News
Fri Mar 2, 9:26 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese province has taken the unusual step of fining hotels and bars more than $600 if they do not provide condoms, part of efforts to fight the spread of AIDS, a newspaper said on Friday. The booming eastern province of Zhejiang, with 1,859 recorded infections by the end of last year, started enforcing the rules on Thursday, the Beijing News said.
"Condoms or condom-vending machines must be placed in hotels, bars and designated public places, or the managers will be fined 5,000 yuan ($650)," the report said.
The Chinese government originally stigmatized AIDS as a disease of the decadent, capitalist West -- a problem of gays, sex workers and drug users. Traditionally, none of these officially existed in communist China.
It has belatedly woken up to the problem, and health experts have warned the virus is now moving into the general population.
But a lack of sex education and unwillingness to talk about sex still hampers the fight, health experts say.
($1=7.743 Yuan)
(Unquote)
