Men in China's capital city have been banned from wearing the 'Beijing bikini' in a bid to improve public hygiene

• The popular "Beijing bikini" trend has been banned in China's capital city to improve public hygiene amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• Men in Beijing will not be allowed to roll up their shirts to show their stomach in public spaces, MSN reported on Sunday.
• Other actions banned in the city include not covering the nose or mouth when coughing and sneezing.
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Beijing has ordered that its citizens must "dress neatly" and not go shirtless in public in an effort to improve public hygiene in response to the coronavirus pandemic that first began in China, MSN has reported.

One target of the clean-up campaign is believed to be the "Beijing bikini," a fashion trend among men which involves rolling up their shirt to expose their stomach — or taking their shirt off completely — in summer months.

The state-run Global Times said there would be a "total ban" of uncivilized actions in public places, as cited by MSN on Sunday.

It comes almost a year after another Chinese city, Jinan, banned men from rolling up their shirts in public.

The authorities released a notice saying that the "uncivilized behavior" was "seriously affecting the image of the city," The Guardian reported in July last year.

Other actions banned to help improve public hygiene in Beijing amid the coronavirus pandemic include not covering the nose or mouth when coughing and sneezing.

Public spaces will also be required to set up one-meter distance markers. Fines for spitting and public defecation have been increased to 200 yuan or $28.

There has so far been a total of 84,325 officially confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China since the outbreak began in the city of Wuhan, last year.

Fearing a second wave of infections, gyms and swimming pools were shut down in the Chinese capital on Saturday, according to the Mail Online.

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