China's 'Love Land' sex theme park closed before completion
by Karen Hawthorne
May 18, 2009, 4:59 PM Source: NationalPost.com


Officials in Chongqing Wash Their Hands of ‘Love Land’

The giant genitalia sculptures and suggestive exhibits under construction at China's first-ever sex theme park were bound to get somebody upset, now weren't they? Talking about sex is still taboo there, let alone taking a roller-coaster ride nestled inside an over-sized thong-wearing derriere.


Over the weekend, officials in the sprawling city of Chongqing, where Love Land was being built, ordered its destruction, the New York Times reported Monday. A state-run newspaper, the Chongqing Evening News, blamed it on the risqué nature of the park:

The park manager, Lu Xiaoqing, had planned to display naked human sculptures, giant models of genitals, sex technique “workshops” and a photography exhibition about the history of sex, according to China Daily. The displays would have included lessons on safe sex and the proper use of condoms.

Mr. Lu told China Daily that the park was being built “for the good of the public.” Love Land would be useful for sex education, he said, and help adults “enjoy a harmonious sex life.”

He added: “Sex is a taboo subject in China, but people really need to have more access to information about it.”

Mr. Lu was building the park in an entertainment zone of Chongqing near the Yangtze River. Chongqing, a booming city built on hills on either side of the Yangtze, once served as the wartime capital of the Kuomintang government. Like other fast-growing cities in China, it has a reputation for loose moral standards.

Lu Xiaoqing, park manager, told the newspaper he got the idea for building Love Land after a visit to a sex park in Jeju, a popular destination in South Korea, and that he had found that the majority of people supported his idea, but had to pay attention and not make the park look vulgar and nasty.


(Photos: At top, A woman washes her hands at a specially-designed wash basin in a public toilet at Love Land theme park in this April 10, 2007 file photo Reuters/Stringer/Files); second from top, a giant penis suffers separation anxiety as it’s hauled away, third from top: In this file picture taken on May 15, 2009, visitors try to get a glimpse of Love Land, billed as China's first-ever sex theme park, in southwest China's Chongqing municipality. STR/AFP/Getty Images.)