When Wang Wei, a sophomore at the teachers' college of Chengdu University in Sichuan province, applied to study sex education as a minor area of study at the end of last semester, he did not think there would be many students on the course.

"Although sex is no longer a taboo subject in China, many still shun it," the 19-year-old said.

When the new semester started earlier this month, he was taken aback to discover that 55 students had applied for the new minor, which only had room for 50.

The popularity of the course also attracted more than 200 students to its launch ceremony on Sunday.

Wang's university was the second institution of higher learning in China to offer a minor in sex education. Capital Normal University in Beijing was the first, college official Huang Shi said in an interview with China Daily.

"As the auditorium was overcrowded, many students had to listen through the windows," Huang said.

Professor Hu Zhen, who launched the minor at the college, said the students in her class have different majors, such as Chinese, mathematics, music, applied psychology, sports and machinery.

According to the school's curriculum, students are required to take 11 courses over three years, before they receive a certificate of proficiency in their chosen minor area of study.

The courses on sex education include physiological anatomy, sexual psychology, sexual counseling, sociology, sexual norms (sexual morality and ethics), school sex education, sexual aesthetics, as well as sex education teaching materials and methods.

In the future, they are expected to serve as sex educators in Sichuan's primary and high schools if their employers give them the opportunity, Hu said.

Many primary and high schools currently do not offer sex education, but use physiology courses to try to educate the students about the physical changes their bodies undergo.

Most schools regard physiology as sex education and lack materials to teach it as a separate area of study, said Zhang Yinjun, spokesperson for the China Charity Federation and general office chief of the AIDS Prevention Education Project for Chinese Youth.

She estimated that 500,000 sex educators are needed in the country's primary and high schools.

Led by Hu, 12 teachers from fields like educational psychology, biology, law, ethics, sociology and psychological counseling will teach the students who chose sex education as their minor.

"As the students will teach in primary and high schools, we will focus on sex education for primary and high school students," said Deng Shanxia, who teaches law.

"The right methods and language are required to talk about sex among primary and high school students. It will be a challenging job for teachers of the new minor," he said.