Are these a couple of masked terrorists who are about to jack up a South China Sea shoreline full of vacationing folks on the beach? Nope, it’s just crazy Chinese people who want to get the best of both worlds — enjoy some beach weather and frolic in the ocean but without getting tanned and retaining their ideal, alabaster skin tone! How do they do this? By wearing what is called a face-kini, a sort of light cloth version of a ski mask.

According to this NPR report, it’s the biggest protective fashion craze. You thought those space-age visors that old Korean women wear during their daily power walks were crazy enough, then you’re clearly mistaken. The face-kini, which is usually worn with a long sleeve shirt as well, protects the skin from tanning, because hey, if you look brown and weathered, then you could be mistaken for a peasant, farm hand or country bumpkin. Hey, even kids wear it!

Since Chinese are more self conscious of keeping their skin white, why go through all the trouble of going to beach and covering oneself up like a serial killer, when they can get away from the sun’s rays in the countless mega-indoor pools around the country? Granted, these pools are the epitome of  the critical mass of humanity. See for yourself:

And not so surprisingly, people are questioning the cleanliness of these facilities.  According to China’s Health Ministry report announced last year, out of 5,639 public swimming pools tested in 24 Chinese provinces, 10 percent of the pools exceed the safe limit for urea levels. In case you don’t know, urea comes from urine.

Man, they look like human soup…..