Pop music wafts through the Extraordinary Space Spa as Su Xin sinks into a chair, skin glowing and mood mellow after a facial and aromatherapy massage scented with lavender and sandalwood.

　　"I just feel so good now," said the 37-year-old travel agent, who comes every two weeks to the airy, plant-filled spa in a luxury Beijing apartment complex.

　　Beauty salons are well established in today's China. Sales of cosmetics and designer fashions are surging. But something sets Su apart: He's a he.

　　Hundreds of salons like Extraordinary Space are springing up in Beijing and other cities, targeting male customers with eye-bag and weight-loss treatments.

　　China's booming male beauty market reflects the enthusiasm of a newly prosperous society to look and feel good - and the eagerness of Chinese and foreign companies to cash in.

　　Cosmetic surgery is wildly popular. Gyms are packed. Pharmacies sell pore-cleansing strips and facial foams for men.

　　They cater to "aimei nanren," or "love-beauty men," China's equivalent of the West's metrosexuals - heterosexual men who embrace facials and other traditionally female grooming rituals.

　　"It's a new way of thinking," said Su, whose wife persuaded him to get his first facial in 2001. "I came to the spa once, twice, three times, and before I knew it, it was part of my routine."

　　The mammoth China International Hair and Beauty Festival this summer in Beijing will showcase the growing range of male beauty products, says its sponsor, the China Hair and Beauty Association.

　　"Beauty products are regularly used only by rich men and models or actors now," said a spokeswoman, Peng Shengguo. "But more and more ordinary guys are beginning to do the same thing."

　　In november, Chinese men will get a chance to flaunt their new look in what organizers say is the country's first Mr China beauty pageant.

　　It comes less than a year after China hosted Miss World, its first international beauty pageant.

　　"We want people to appreciate manly beauty," said Ren Qiao, head of Mr China's organizing committee.

　　(The Associated Press)