Visitors inspect before-and-after virtual images of plastic surgery on a 3-D scan computer at an international plastic surgery expo held in Seoul in April. Provided to China Daily

Good prospects for China

As a sunrise industry with high connectivity and high integration, Liu believes that within a few years China will surpass South Korea both in technology and influence on the plastic surgery tourism industry. It is just a matter of time, he says.

"China didn't have plastic surgeons many years ago. However, significant progress has been made and some universities have plastic surgery as a subject," he said.

"China also has abundant medical and tourism resources, so a promising future is in store for the two industries, he said.

More important, compared with people born in the 1960s and 70s, who are still very conservative toward accepting plastic surgery, those born in the 1980s, and especially those born in the 1990s and later, are more open to the changes.

"Some of them even volunteered to send us photos of themselves before and after the surgery and hope we can put them on our website to share with others," Liu said.

Han Junhong and Yang Wanli contributed to this story.