One-fifth of Shanghai's residents use condoms, and lead the country in the use of this form of contraception.

The proportion of Shanghai's population using condoms stood at 18.31 percent in 2004, twice the figure of 9.11 percent in 1995, three times the country's average of just 5.3 percent, according to official statistics released recently.

The city is now home to more than 17,000 locations offering free condoms, of which 1,185 are open round the clock. It also has 571 automatic condom dispensers, China Daily said Friday.

More than 40 million free condoms were handed out last year in the city of more than 17 million people.

The Shanghai Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission said that since June it has installed a further 330 free condom dispensers in government and commercial office buildings and communities.

The commission is also geared to promoting publicity and awareness of contraception and HIV/AIDS. It is hoping to bring such education to 85 percent of Shanghai's women of childbearing age (15-49) by 2006.

In a related development, South China's Guangdong Province is to expand its control and prevention center for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), to meet the rising number of cases in the region.

The number of STD cases in Guangdong hit 106,037 last year, accounting for one-fifth of all cases in the Chinese mainland, and up 24.16 percent over 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2005)