LYING on a hospital bed, Li Pengli, who had Shenzhen's first sex-change operation about three weeks ago, said she felt great to have become a woman, with people she knew and didn't know sending their blessings.

The sex-change operation has gone well so far. The stitches were all removed June 20. The newly created female genitalia is still swollen. And Li still feels pain when sleeping or urinating. Xia Zhaoji, the surgeon-in-charge said it would look more real after about a month, when the swelling subsided. Xia said he would encourage Li to go to public bathrooms for women to take showers three months later. Li will also be able to have sex after three months. Within half a year, she will also have her breasts enlarged.

The 30-year-old Li underwent a seven-hour sex-change operation June 7 in Pengcheng Hospital in Luohu, which specializes in plastic surgery. After the media spotlighted her unique case, the hospital decided to do the surgery free of charge. During the operation, tens of thousands of people visited a Web site that followed the city's first sex-change operation.

To match her new sexual identity, Li selected the more feminine name of Li Pengli - "peng" in honor of the hospital, and "li" signifying beauty in Chinese.

Asked about how she felt hours after her sex-change operation, Li had said "it hurt so much that I no longer thought about skirts or high-heeled shoes." Li said she was dreaming while the doctors operated on her. "I dreamed that I was flying," she said.

But at about 6 the next morning, Li asked her elder sister to help put on the diamond earrings her counselor had given her as a gift.

Li said the first thing she wanted to do after leaving the hospital was to walk on the street wearing a beautiful skirt.

The next thing Li wished to do was to go back to her hometown in Hunan Province. "Though people in my hometown objected to me having the operation, they really cared about me after I had it," she said.

Li's family stayed in the hospital to take care of her for a week. Her younger brother was still not used to calling her "sister," but Li said it was all right he still called her "brother." Li's elder sister Li Meijun said she could face her sister's sex change calmly. After all, her life before the sex change had not been happy.

Pengcheng Hospital has promised Li a job doing laundry at the hospital after she recovers. Li said she hopes to look for a better job.

Li's biggest hobby is fashion. "Some of my past clothes were girls' clothes. Once I saw a girl wearing a windcheater, looking very nice. Later I also bought a black windcheater to go with a pair of high-heeled shoes. I guess I looked even better," she said.

Li said she would like to wear darker clothes, not wanting to expose herself too much. "I want to be a good woman and wear conservatively," she said.

Li wants to find a simple man to be her boyfriend. She even looks forward to marrying a man she really loves someday.

She said she didn't want to visit her last place of work in Dongguan. "Some of my colleagues thought of me as evil. I used to think that I would show them when I become a woman, so that they would never laugh at me. But now I no longer care what they think of me," Li said.

Editor: Wing