Wash Po-China; The Land of Fake Rolexes and Fake Virgins

Madonna's "Like A Virgin" album cover and a faux Chinese Rolex: musicnear.com and magento.cn

(Story reported by Keith B. Richburg for the Washington Post)

BEIJING -- China has long been known as the land of cheap fakes -- Rolexes, DVDs, handbags and designer clothes.

Now add a new one to the list: fake virgins.

A growing number of young Chinese women -- mostly in their 20s and about to get married -- are opting for a surgical procedure called "hymen restoration," which repairs the hymen to its previous condition before it was ruptured, which most typically is done by first sexual contact but can also happen by playing sports or riding a bicycle.

Even as China has flung open its doors to the West and modernized, a deeply conservative, male-chauvinistic attitude persists. Many men, including white-collar professionals, still say they want their future wife to be a virgin. And increasingly liberated Chinese women have found a way to give men what they want.

"We can fix it so everything is perfect, so the men can believe they are marrying virgins," said Zhou Hong, a physician and director of gynecology at the Beijing Wuzhou Women's Hospital. "We don't advertise it, we don't publicize it."

(click here to read the full story on the Washington Post website)