IT'S now official - the Ancient Chinese Sex Culture Museum, once located in the city's busiest street, Nanjing Donglu, is to move to Tongli Town in neighbouring Jiangsu Province because it can't afford to stay in Shanghai.

It will be the third time the privately owned museum has been forced to move in the past four years. Each move has been due to economic reasons - not enough money, not enough customers.

After quitting Nanjing Donglu in 2001, the museum re-located to Wuding Lu, an isolated residential area. The new museum in Tongli, 80 kilometres from Shanghai, will open next April 18.

In the red

"We are in the red about 20,000 to 30,000 yuan (US$2,420 to 3,630) every month and it is very difficult for me to fill this hole," said Liu Dalin, president of the museum and a Professor of Sexual Science.

Liu and his partner, Hu Hongxia, have invested a total of 400,000 yuan (US$48,367) in the museum, almost their entire savings. The museum's second floor houses more than 1,000 items from Liu's collection of sex artifacts including paintings, appliances, books and sex furniture which had cost Liu more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,100).

The price of a ticket into the museum is 30 yuan (US$3.60) per head and the museum needs at least 100 visitors a day to break even. But recently only 40 to 50 customers have been arriving at the box office each day.

"I am just a poor scholar - I haven't any more money," Liu said.

So when officials from Tongli, a well-known tourism spot in East China, came to Shanghai in June, Liu was immediately interested in negotiating a move.

After two months of discussions, the two sides have now signed an agreement that the museum will stay in Tongli for 10 years. The move begins at the end of this year, said Hu Hongxia.

Change for better

Tongli will invest about US$1 million in the first phase of securing the new site and fitting it out. The new museum will be next door to a famous scenic spot, the Tuisi Garden, and will be 10 times the size of the present museum.

"Faced with such a good deal, who would not move?" Liu said smiling. He said he now thinks about Tongli even in his dreams.

But Tongli officials reiterated that the motive for negotiating the move was not profit.

"Tongli attracts 1.5 to 2 million visitors every year, and the income they generate totals 20 to 30 million yuan (US$2.4 to 3.6 million)," said Liu Xinzhong, the town head.

"I won't expect many people to come to the museum at first. Our first aim is to protect, research and exhibit Chinese culture."

Town officials were also worried whether local people would accept the new arrival or not. "Town people are not as open-minded as Shanghai people," Liu said.

So the officials want to invite Professor Liu to give some talks about sexual science in Tongli ahead of the museum's arrival. In addition, the museum will only be open to foreigners and tour groups at first.

Ups and downs

"I don't worry that people may be against this museum," Liu said. He is happy to say that he has never heard any criticism from more than 100,000 visitors to the museum in Shanghai. In fact, many left encouraging words in the visitors' book.

One foreign visitor said the museum had changed his views about China. Previously he had thought China was an sexually repressive country.

Liu said: "On the contrary, it is some leaders' minds that have not caught up with the ordinary people. That is also a major reason for our moving out."

In co-operation with the Shanghai New World Department Store, the museum moved to a building on Nanjing Donglu on September 2, 1999. The company invested 500,000 yuan (US$60,000) and at first the museum attracted many visitors.

But the museum was not allowed to hang a sign outside because the Pedestrian Street Administrative Office said advertising sexual products was forbidden under the government's Advertisement Law.

The result was that few people could find the museum in a lane off Nanjing Donglu. One visitor from the US was not able to find the museum on his first two visits to Shanghai.

The museum, faced with fewer and fewer visitors, was forced to move to Wuding Lu in 2001.

The museum then applied to the Shanghai Tourism Administrative Commission for approved "scenic spot" identification so that it could be listed in the itineraries of travel agencies and attract more visitors.

"For the past three years, we have kept applying. The commission's officials expressed their satisfaction after visiting the museum but the final answer was always no," Liu said.

Last June, a local tourism company also tried to get involved. Because it was a State-owned enterprise, the company had to apply to the government to list the museum on its itinerary. But an official from Huangpu District who had the final say refused to co-operate.

Liu said: "There is a Chinese saying: 'People would die for their friends'. After so many ups and downs, in Shanghai, I found I was deeply moved by Tongli because of its attitude. If the co-operation continues smoothly, the museum will be in Tongli forever."