Two young ladies from South Korea's Busan solemnly signed their names on the "image re-styling agreement" at a medical beauty organization in Beijing today.

According to this medical beauty organization, more and more foreign young ladies, mostly South Korean women, have made bookings for plastic surgeries in Chinese plastic surgery organizations recently.

Why undergo plastic surgeries in China instead of in South Korea? A South Korean woman said that an operation performed by a South Korean expert would cost almost three times more than one done by a Chinese expert with identical qualification, professional background and experience, and South Korea's plastic surgeries show a tendency to produce a "unified" and "formulaic" image and are apt to produce beauties of similar appearance. She chooses to undergo a plastic surgery in China in pursuit of individualistic beauty.

Moreover, she hopes to develop her career in China, and the plastic surgery would satisfy some demand of her future work. Another woman frankly admitted that after coming to China, she has found a Chinese boyfriend who loves her very much and supports her plastic surgery plans, and she hopes for beauty with "Chinese feature" after the procedures.

In view of this phenomenon, Feng Bin, director of a well-known plastic surgery hospital in Beijing, commented that Chinese plastic surgeons lag South Korean professionals in terms of partial plastic surgeries but have caught up with them regarding body sculpture. Judging from the current situation, many Chinese consumers possess plastic surgery consumption consciousness and capacity and demand for plastic surgeries is rising, which rapidly boosts the development of China's plastic surgery industry.

In the past two years, in particular, many Chinese plastic surgeons have studied and mastered advanced other countries' plastic surgery techniques. In addition, China's obviously competitive prices will help attract more foreign beauty pursuers to take plastic surgeries in China in the next few years.
 
(China News Service March 20, 2006)