"Too many business banquets and not enough physical exercise left me with a beer belly. Then I was introduced to belly dancing. To my surprise, it helped me lose fat and reduce tension from work," a 38-year-old department head of a Beijing company, who has been working on his new regimen for three months, told the China Daily.

Like him, a number of young and middle-aged men, especially in white-collar jobs, as well as students in other major cities are signing up for belly dancing classes, mastering the seductive movements of the Middle East art form usually done by women.

"White-collar men like the dance more than exercise with dumbbells and push-ups because the latter is dull and dry," Zhong Hui, a belly dance teacher in Beijing, told the newspaper.

The report said initially most of those who enrolled at these belly dancing clubs were women but men started lining up after learning the art form helps in weight reduction and offers release from work pressure, the report said.