Vice in Shenzhen
“So, are there prostitutes in Shenzhen?”
This newcomer’s question is bound to provoke laughter from long term residents. Sex is a major Shenzhen growth industry alongside building skyscrapers and making fake ipods.
You can learn a lot about the Shenzhen sex industry from reading between the lines of news reports.
For example, in the news organs, Futian District is the best at spewing out anti-vice statements of action:
- in November 2006 apparently over 3000 police were involved in anti- porno / brothel activities.
- 679 prostitutes were detained this year. (Most of them probably released with a slap on the arse.) Yes, that is pretty lame for 3000 police vs a city of hookers.
- in October the focus was to “crack down on prostitution in hair salons, foot massage parlors, and rented houses”. Tip if you are not sure whether the hair salon is real: look for scissors. If the only thing you can see are large moisuriser dispensers, you have been warned.
- the hundreds of “illegal entertainment places” reported as shut down probably means non-approved karaokes, if you needed another idea of where to get some SZxy action.
The details of the anti-prostitution raids confirm the following venues as top “evening action” hotspots:
- Shazui (of course)
- Shangsha
- Xiasha
- Shatou
Watch out for our next anti vice blog post, giving you the bus route numbers to the above locations, so you, er, know to avoid them.
March 16th, 2007 at 12:46 am
[...] 真的是这样吗？我认识一个叫阿蓉的朋友，她在下沙住了12年了，和房东成了很好的朋友，她走在村子里，大部分的人都认识，她是看着下沙村慢慢地从一个城市边缘的村落慢慢变成了喧嚣的人口堡垒。像阿蓉这样的人，对下沙产生了强烈的依赖，她说，如果搬家到别处的话，会感到非常不方便。 Is it really so? I have one friend called Ah Rong, she’s lived in Xiasha for twelve years and has become very good friends with the landlord. When she goes into the neighborhood, most people know her. She has watched the area slowly go from being a small hamlet on the city outskirts to becoming a noisy, populated fortress. For people like Ah Rong who have developed a strong dependency on Xiasha, she says that continuously moving from place to place would be very inconvenient for her. [...]