The two internet outlets are located in Beijing's western Haidian District, where college students and high-tech employees make up the majority of the population. Young people in Beijing tend to surf the Internet at street bars, for computers remain a luxury and beyond the means of ordinary students.

The Feiyu Bar, located to the south of the Peking Univerity, was fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) and ordered to straighten out its "irregularities" within a given time on Tuesday.

A random inspection by the local Haidian Public Security Bureau found out 56 screens of a total 860 computers hooked to Internet were displaying pages which are "obscene and filthy". Beijing authorities say Internet bars serving porn content breach a newly-publised regulation on Internet security protection.

Relevant departments of the neighbouring Peking University assisted the investigation.

Feiyu bar was launched by Wang Yuesheng, a farmer-turned entrepreneur from North China's Shanxi Province. The manager has accepted the punishment and said he would "take a lesson" from it, a police spokesman said.

The other bar, called "Spark-ice Internet Cafe" 3 miles south of Feiyu, was ordered to stop business, because it had been receiving users without a licence, the spokesman said.

(chinadaily.com.cn 12/07/2000)