Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality will open the city's first outdoor bathing area during the coming May Day holidays.

The bathing area, located at the Furong River tourist site in Wulong County, will open to tourists free of charge from May 1 through 7, said Luo Dalin, general manager of the tourist site.

Cameras, videos, and clothes other than swimsuits will be banned from the area, where men and women will be separated, said Luo.

Luo said the bathing area was extremely safe, as it was located in a canyon, with the nearest residents about five kilometers away.

The management of the bathing area plans to charge 15 yuan (US$1.85) per person after the May Day holidays.

Another outdoor bathing area will open to tourists in the National Day holidays at the Maoyunshan Forest Park, the biggest forest park in Chongqing. The management plans to charge 50 yuan per person, which is expected to cost 25 million yuan and include other recreation facilities.

In order to prevent voyeurs, builders of the Maoyunshan bathing area said they would separate the bathing area into 25-sqm zones with curtains. Each zone will be for only one person.

Although outdoor bathing is quite common in the West, it is still rare in China. When a group of five young people bathed at the Juyunfeng forest in Chengdu, locals thought they were wild men. The management of the forest asked the five to stop bathing so as not to "influence other tourists."

A lawyer with the Chongqing Dingling lawyers' agency said outdoor bathing risked breaking the law. Being naked in public places is against the law and violators are subject to up to 15 days' custody, according to the national regulations on public security.

(Shenzhen Daily April 18, 2006)