Teens learn looks count

A week after finishing the stressful national college entrance examinations, Yang Yang was not worrying about her scores or celebrating the end of years of studying. Instead, she was looking forward to dragging her parents to a local beauty clinic for a new look.

The 19-year-old went into the surgery room, nervously, but with her heart filled with hope at the same time. About 20 minutes later, she came out, leaving behind the typically Asian single eyelid look for the so-called double-eyelids that some Chinese and almost all Westerners naturally have.

The damage from the procedure was very small; Yang only suffered from some unnoticeable swelling on the eyelids.

"With bigger and more vigorous eyes, they say I look more attractive," she said.

The end of the college entrance exams marks the beginning of an annual upsurge of plastic surgery procedures among young people. Zhang Surong, a surgeon and director of Beijing Ximei, a beauty clinic founded in 2003, told Metropolitan that they have had significant growth in customers since the exams ended.

Zhang's clinic has a 10 percent discount for students, and many other clinics in town have new summer vacation packages, targeting college or high school students, especially the ones who have just finished the big entrance exam.

These teens are a key part of a new trend, non-surgical cosmetic procedures, which means no-blood or minor-trauma procedures that require little time to recover from, including getting minor changes on the face and getting injections.

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