No matter how hot it gets, keep your shirts, shoes on

Residents in Jinan, Shandong province have received a simple message from city officials: keep your clothes on no matter how hot it is.

The city's office of civic enhancement recently issued a notice to regulate public modesty during summer, especially those who go topless or barefoot in populous areas such as parks, squares, buses and scenic spots.

Residents are also advised not to swim, take showers or wash their clothes or feet at public lakes, the notice said.

Media outlets under the city's administration have been urged to set up special sections that expose people who go topless in public, it said.

Fan Lizhen, an official at the city's office of building a civilized city, said they have enforced a comprehensive regulation on public modesty since June 28.

Topless and barefoot citizens have been asked to put their clothes and shoes back on, and anyone who has refused to do so risks being exposed publicly. In extreme cases they will be fined, he said, adding that so far there has been no need to fine or expose topless citizens.

Tianjin issued a similar regulation in May that forbids public immodesty. People who are topless in public will receive a fine of 50 yuan ($7) to 200 yuan, the regulation said.

Local police in the city's Jinghai district issued a 50 yuan fine to a man surnamed Gu for being shirtless in public on May 17, the Paper.cn reported. Another man surnamed Zuo was also fined 50 yuan by police in Heping district on May 22 for immodesty, according to the Heping public security bureau.

Hu Guanghui, from Changsha, Hunan province, said it is common for men, especially middle-aged and elderly men, to be topless in public in summer.

When the sun goes down and people start eating night snacks and drinking beer with their friends, many men take their shirts off, with some displaying tattoos on their chest, the 45-year-old said.

"I don't think taking off one's shirt during extreme heat is uncivilized. It's just topless, not full frontal," Hu said.

Yu Ting, who works at a bank in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, said China has a tradition of modesty - pornography is forbidden, nudity in films is strictly limited and plunging necklines are a rare sight.

"I do not see why we should tolerate public nudity when we have such strict rules on nudity in films," the 29-year-old said.

People should be less forgiving on male nudity in public while taboos surrounding female nudity, public or private, are still very strong, she said.

A heat wave will hit China over the next 10 days, with temperatures in some areas expected to hit 40 C, the China Meteorological Administration said on Tuesday.

Parts of North China and the Huanghuai region will see hot weather lasting for four to seven days, three days more than the record during the same period in past years, according to the administration.