Xiao Jie (not his real name), an openly gay man in Beijing, believes that a lack of sex education at school was one of the reasons he contracted HIV/AIDS.

"Even today I'm not sure if I use condoms correctly," said the 25-year-old native of Hubei province, who works as an artistic designer at a private company in the Chinese capital.

Neatly dressed and soft-spoken, Xiao appears healthy and no different from anybody else, but since July he has been required to take antiretroviral treatment, or ART, at 10 pm every night. The treatment is provided free of charge by the local health authority.