Prepare to Bare All: Hebei Announces Nude Beach Plan

We love stories like this because not only do we get to write this one today, but it guarantees a follow-up tomorrow or next week when the local government steps in and says, "Oh no you're not!" Anyway, here goes.

A developer in the Hebei province county of Luan (this would seem like an April Fool's Day post if you read Chinese) said it will invest 3.2 billion yuan to create a tourism area that will include a golf course (yawn), an equestrian area (meh), and a nude beach (whoa). The "beach" will be on both sides of the Luan River, according to People's Daily Online.

Now, this kind of thing has happened before, and it never works. In 2004, a group of female university students decide to do a little skinny-dipping near Hangzhou. Embarrassed, the local security guards ran off (this was before the cellphone camera), and for a time, the area was designated as a nude swimming area. It was later closed because it was seen as limiting the options of swimmers who didn't want to be offended by all that nudity and related frolicking.

A 2009 survey of everyone's favorite target market, "Chinese netizens," found that 71 percent supported the creation of designated, clothing-optional swimming areas. The sustained argument against nude beaches is that it offends public decency. Back on dry land, the young-women-getting-nude-photos-taken trend is now so common it doesn't even receive media coverage anymore.

Anyway, our upcoming July issue's cover story is about water. There might be some nude bathing in the bathhouse section. Look for it next week.

Photo: knowledge.allianz.com