SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese office manager Ye Lu likes working up a sweat -- not in the gym, but in a tanning salon.

"Tanned skin looks great on me and I like to hear my friends saying how fresh and healthy I look," said Ye, a young Chinese white collar worker, as he walked out of a tanning room in downtown Shanghai, perspiration glistening on his forehead.

Ye hits the tanning beds twice a week, despite the objections of his wife, who still favours a traditional pale complexion.

Next door to Ye's salon, Zhang Xinyu sits at the reception desk of a skin-whitening beauty salon, looking quietly and uncomprehendingly at the dark-hued Chinese customers coming and going from the neighbouring tanning parlour.

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