The Health Ministry says sexual intercourse has become the main mode of HIV transmission in China. It adds that most of the infected are yound people.?Our reporter finds out how much young people in the nation's capital know about the issue.

A brightly colored condom vending machine was installed on the campus of a university in Beijing several years ago. Unfortunately, most students don't even know it exists.

"No I don't think there's such a thing on our campus."

"On the campus? No way."

"Some day in December?"

"I don't know. Is it embarrassing that I have a Ph.D and I don't know it."

With the openness of Chinese society, Chinese youngsters are becoming more and more open to sex. However, according to a survey of youths in China's big cities, over 40% of participants have had unsafe sex, and very few of them know where to take an HIV test.

Meanwhile, the rate of sexual transmission has exceeded all other methods since 2008, and become the number one route of HIV transmission in China.

He Xiong, Head of AIDS Department of Beijng Disease Control Center, said, "There are two parts of this statistic. One is male homosexual sexual transmission, which is the majority. And the rest is transmitted through heterosexual sex. It will be dangerous when the second one becomes the majority. So we still have time to try hard."

He Xiong says information about HIV transmission has already been added to high school textbooks in Beijing to increase their awareness before students sexually mature. And for college students, the aim is to increase their social responsibility.

He said, "Starting this year, we have collaborated with universities' red cross unions and students' unions to further communicate with students. And we modify our plans for them according to their feedback. I believe it will get better."

Zhang Ni said, 80 percent of HIV-infected people in China's cities are between 20 and 39 years old. At the same time, the awareness of this disease among teenagers remains limited. Increasing their knowledge about the prevention of HIV infection is not only the responsibility of schools and universities, but also a duty of society.

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