Just as he was busy preparing his thesis defense graduate student Li Wei (pseudonym) received confirmation that he was HIV positive.
"I don't blame him, I only blame myself," said Li, admitting that he had no choice but to accept the matter.
The "him" he referred to was a guy he met during a trip last December. After passing several interviews with flying colors, Li was successfully admitted to a graduate school in Beijing in December, 2014. As a gift to himself, he decided to take a trip on his own to the southern part of China.
He ended up sharing a room with another guy around his age who was also traveling in the region. The two hit it off and eventually the conversation turned to sex. Not long after, the two were doing more than just talking.
"It was a very shabby hostel and there were no condom machines. I didn't even think of using protection," Li said.
After he got the results of his medical exam back, Li tried to call the guy, but no one answered. Out of curiosity, Li searched for the guy's phone number, but the result shocked him: Numerous results linked the number with that of a male sex worker.
Li felt furious and helpless at the same time.
"I don't have any detailed information to report to the police."
The only thing he could do was text the guy a message saying: "You totally ruined my life. Please conduct yourself better so you don't ruin anyone else's life again."
Li's story isn't some isolated incident. In fact, cases of HIV transmission between gay men are on the rise every year.
The number of high school to colleague students in China that are HIV positive has risen by 35 percent every year over the past five years, Wu Zunyou, the director of the National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, told the Beijing News.
Sex is the main means of transmission among HIV positive teenagers, among which transmission between males makes up the majority of cases.
"Gay men account for 82 percent of affected teenagers," said Wu.
In 2008, the male-to-male transmission of HIV accounted for 59 percent of cases among young students while that number rose to 67 percent in 2010.
In 2014 this rose to the current 82 percent. By the end of October of this year, there are 9,152 living HIV carriers between the age of 15-24, accounting for 1.6 percent of all cases nationwide.
According to a survey conducted by Beijing News, 90 percent of colleague students have a basic knowledge of HIV, yet know little about how to protect themselves properly from the disease.
A difficult transition
Many students with HIV contract the disease right after their transition from high school to university. According to Wu, young high school students new to being on their own end up having unsafe sex with those outside the campus and from there the virus spreads to universities.
Compared to Li, Wang Ming (pseudonym) was rather calm when he saw the two bars that indicated he was HIV positive.
"There's no point in regretting things. It's my own fault," Wang explained.
Wang first began living with a guy when he was a sophomore, although at the time he didn't think of himself as gay.
"If it wasn't for 'that thing,' I wouldn't have done it with him."
By "that thing," Wang means doing drugs.
Wang first used drugs at a male friend's place. It wasn't long before he was hooked.
Wang has had to deal with some emotional issues since his diagnosis.
Wang rents an apartment near Beijing's North 4th Ring Road area, but hasn't been back in a long time. He spends his time staying with different male friends, and although he continues to sleep around, "I won't tell them that I have HIV."
Wang doesn't tell his parents much about his life in Beijing, his only wish right now is to save up some money to leave to his little brother before he dies.
Growing numbers
According to a survey by the Beijing Youan Hospital and the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning in Sanlitun, Beijing last year, the rate of HIV infection among college students is as high as 10 percent.
According to the Beijing News, some students continue to have sexual relations even though they know they are HIV positive.
According to Zhang Tong, director of the Infection Center at Beijing Youan Hospital, the percentage of people 14-20 who are HIV positive is on the rise. It's become a common sight for 14- or 15-year-olds to come in for testing.
Zhang said, almost 10,000 people come for HIV testing at the hospital every year, of these many come every three months or twice a year.
"Of all those that come for testing, most are gay, bisexual, people with multiple sexual partners, drug users who share needles... the high risk groups. Of these homosexual men make up the majority," Zhang said.
In October of this year, 15 provinces in China reported they have more than 100 HIV positive students. According to Wu, the number of provinces with more than 100 HIV positive students was only five.
"Compared to other groups, young people show the highest increase. When you combine all the provinces in China, several thousand young people are infected with HIV every year," Wu said.
