Six days later the two had a face-to-face meeting and finally decided to work together.

On May 18, 2005, Xiao Dong organized a Chaoyang Chinese AIDS Volunteer Group thanks to his popularity among the gay community. The group has seven key members, among them being professors, doctors and media personnel, with the youngest being 26 and the oldest 53. The same day, they also launched their website, www.hivolunt.net, the first website in China dedicated to AIDS prevention and treatment for gay people.

According to Xiao Dong, the group now has 2,700 members across the nation. Their main work is to deliver materials on AIDS prevention and treatment in bars and parks where gays often gather. Other activities like lectures and parties are held to boost awareness of AIDS prevention and their faith in staying alive.

The organization has won trust of the gay community, and the government has begun to contact it for cooperation. The opening of China's first gay clinic is a joint victory of the organization and government: the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention and its branch in the Chaoyang District.

Faced with a serious AIDS situation, local governments or institutions have begun exploring bolder approaches. In August, the Chaoyang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention opened a gay forum on its website, the first of its kind with official support.

Fu Qingyuan, the website's manager, noted that the forum is a platform for gay groups and health institutions to communicate with each other, in an effort to better control the high risk of AIDS expansion among the gay community.

Though the civil organizations seem to work better than the government health sectors, they do have their problems. In Xiao Dong's case, for example, he is basically satisfied with his work but the shortage of funds is a big headache.

Chaoyang Chinese AIDS Volunteer Group so far hasn't gotten any social donations and its only income comes from selling advertising space on its website. But the website ads generate a mere profit of 20,000 yuan each year, half of what it needs to spend. Under such circumstances, volunteers work without any payment, sometimes even paying their own transportation costs.

"If only we could have a little bit more money, we would launch more efficient activities and get more people to join us," noted Xiao Dong.

China is a country where AIDS spreads very fast. According to the estimate by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS and the World Health Organization, the mainland has 650,000 people who are infected with AIDS but only 140,000 have been tested. That's to say, still 80 percent of the potential infectors remain in the dark.

The 80 percent are mostly among high risk groups like gays, prostitutes and drug addicts. To control the AIDS spread among them is really a challenge to the government. In recent years, it has begun positively intervening in the issue, such as on special occasions providing clean needles for drug users and launching experimental units of drug-substitute treatment.

This October, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, held a special class to educate prostitutes on AIDS prevention and condom use. As prostitution is something that needs to be cracked down on, such an activity naturally aroused some opposition. But according to Zhang Konglai, Vice Director of the China VD and HIV/AIDS Control Association, the class had great symbolic meaning as a harbinger of the "coming spring in China's AIDS prevention work."

Nanjing, meanwhile, has included AIDS infectors in the healthcare security system, the first time ever in China. This is in sharp contrast with the past, when AIDS was considered a "filthy" disease and its sufferers were ashamed to go to regular hospitals for treatment. Thus, social tolerance towards AIDS is increasing.