Shanghai Tan

I went to assist to the 4th China Adult-Care Expo (第四届中国国际成人保健及生殖健康展览会) yesterday, held at the Shanghai International Exhibition Center at Hongqiao area. I saw the announcement in the Shanghai Daily newspaper. It is rather surprising the approach that they use to sell sex toy here, they put the emphasis much more on the healing effect (physical and emotional for the couple) than on the pleasure effect. Therefore it’s not uncommon to see sex toys, for men or for women, being sold in mainstream state-owned pharmacies — in the front row — not hidden at the corner!

So there I was, getting off the taxi, at the side door of the exhibition center. A man approached me and asked if I was going to the show. He has cheap ticket to sell. The regular price at the counter is 30RMB (~4$ CA), he’s selling for 20! I walked away telling him I’m not interested and that I’ve been fooled many times before, but he really insisted, and looking at his not-too-bad-guy-face, I thought losing 20 bucks is not a big deal, or I could save 10 bucks… It turned out he sold me the entry pass of a guy who must have attended the day before and don’t need it anymore. He probably bought the pass for 5 bucks from that guy… Another example that recycle is good for making money!

Fourth China Adult-Care Expo 2007	The most fancy booth on the show floor - Shaki Sex
Shaki Sex	Condom shop
A busy booth	Product show - even the guardians are interested in these products!
A big health care product company...

So I went in the show, every booth looked respectable, they toys are similar to what I see in Montreal (I live on St-Catherine!), despite a bit softer… After all the majority of the sex accessories sold on world market are manufactured at China, just like everything else. There are many westerners in the show who seem to shop for suppliers.

Toys	Sexy lingerie
Sexy lingerie	Sexy lingerie
A busy lingerie shop	Sexy lingerie
Who's using these?	Oh come on babe!
How about a multifunction massage chair?	Upgraded massage chair
Oriental viagra	What the hell are these?

They don’t sell the jumbo crazy stuff here, but more remarkably, all the posters and packaging are only topless, they don’t show the bottom naked. The wording on the packaging is a bit more polite than what is sold in North America. The sellers and consumers discuss about the products in a totally normal manner, which surprise me a bit because even myself was shy to ask questions about utilization… They either act very hard or are truely open-minded looking at these products in a totally healing perspective, more than I can do. But I’m still not able to consider the SM accessories and obscene lingerie as healing products!

At some point there was a sexy lingerie catwalk, the crowd was so packed that I can barely see the faces of the models. Unfortunately missing out the most exciting moment of the exhibition.

Sexy lingerie catwalk	Even if Bill Clinton passes by, no one would notice or care...
Sexy lingerie catwalk	Sexy lingerie catwalk
This is the best models that I could capture	We were all watching the show, but maybe not the same one...

The good thing with China today is that, it has a very rich and various history. No matter what become fashionable, China has something to show about that, philosophy, war strategy, exploration, health product, and of course sex!

Ancian jade sculpture	18th century porcelaine
Customized furniture and decoration	Paints and scrolls

Click here to see the whole album.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 11:10 am and is filed under Shanghai Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.