Chinese police order nudists to cover up
Authorities on the tropical Chinese island of Hainan have reportedly shut down the country’s only nudist beach
Chinese authorities have closed down the country’s only nudist beach, ordering bare-bottomed bathers off its sands in a bid to create a “civilised social environment”.
Officials in Sanya, a resort town on the tropical island of Hainan, reportedly descended on the Dadonghai beach on Thursday morning with orders to clothe dozens of naked sun worshippers.
Dadonghai, a 1.4-mile crescent of sand along the South China Sea, has been known as China’s top nudist destination for more than a decade despite never having been officially recognised by the government.
The Naked Historian, a British blog about naturism, describes Dadonghai as China’s “one and only nudist beach.”
The “colony” also receives a mention in the Rough Guide to China, which warns potential visitors that the beach is mostly frequented by “Chinese men well past the first bloom of youth.”
No more. On Thursday morning law enforcement officials appeared on the beach, which is near a People’s Liberation Army base, and ordered naked bathers to put their trunks back on.
Embarrassed-looking police officers handed out leaflets outlining the Communist Party’s ban on all “nude swimming or sunbathing.”
“Violators will be punished in accordance with the nature of their offence,” China News Service reported.
The state-controlled news agency quoted an upset local who claimed Dadonghai’s sands were often crowded with as many as 200 stark naked men, the majority from northern China.
“Swimming or sunbathing nude on a public beach is not a moral thing to do,” said the man, who was named only as Mr Zhou. “I hope the government can put a stop to this behaviour once and for all.”
To the global nudist community the People’s Republic of China is known as something of a wilderness.
A ranking of the world’s top 14 nudist beaches that was compiled by Chinese state media last year failed to include a single destination in the Middle Kingdom.
“Public nudity is widely frowned upon as contrary to Confucian values, which emphasise a sense of propriety and shame,” according to a post on Naked Historian last year.
There were still “very few naturist resorts in China and only one nudist beach,” the blog added.
However, that was starting to change with “nudist sites” popping up in parts of northeast and southwest China.
Among them were resorts named the Chongqing Girls Nude Bathing Area and the Heaven Bodies Nude Bathing Centre. “Things are looking up,” the blog concluded.
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