A COUPLE who kissed each other for 10 hours continuously beat off 20 other couples - including a 73-year-old man and his 63-year-old wife - to win a voucher for 10,000 yuan ($1,210) of goods at a Valentine's Day competition in Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province.

The couple, whose two-year-old child sat and watched the show from beginning to end, said the first thing they would do would be to have a meal because they had gone a whole day without food.

The organizers said the competition was open to everyone above the age of 18. The prize for kissing for five hours was 5,000 yuan ($605), while if you did it for 10 minutes, you could have a souvenir.

Experts say hot kissing exchanges about 250 bacteria. Research from Paris has concluded that a typical French kiss moves 29 muscles in the face. Couples transfer an average of 9 milligrams of water, 0.7 milligrams of protein, 0.18 milligrams of organic matter, 0.71 milligrams of fat and 0.45 milligrams of salt to each other, which leads to "hot kissing disease". Hot kissing also leads to the interinfection of pulmonary tuberculosis, colds, parotitis, scarlet fever, syphilis and nettle rash. (Star News)