Sex websites turn to English to escape watchdogs
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As pornographic websites gradually disappear thanks to China's anti-porn campaigns, some are surviving by using only English to hide their activities from the attention of Internet watchdogs.
These English-language websites offer door-to-door prostitution services and especially target foreigners.
Typing "Shanghai Massage" into Internet search engines can reveal a list of websites written in quite fluent English in a bid to avoid being spotted by the country's Internet watchdogs, who usually focus on tracking Chinese websites.
Many say on the front pages that they are offering legitimate massage services, but galleries of pictures of their masseuses seem to indicate something more than just massage - all the masseuses are young and half-naked Chinese girls with perfect bodies. And customers are told they can choose them to be their "companions in the lonely city."
A telephone number is often listed on the front page of the websites, offering an around-the clock service. But the customer service staff only speak English and only take calls from English-speaking customers to avoid being questioned by Chinese Internet watchdogs.
When a Shanghai Daily reporter, posing as a foreign visitor, phoned one company, calling itself "Sweet Massage," a manager said they could send 22-year-old Chinese escort girls, who can speak fluent English, to the customer's home or hotel for all kinds of sexual services.
"We have younger girls, 17 or 18, but the 22-year-old girls are most mature and playful," said the manager, who refused to give her name.
According to the manager, the price is 1,000 yuan (US$150) for each girl, but customers could pay 1,800 yuan for two girls for "double fun." The girls could be "delivered" to the customer in about 30 to 45 minutes in Shanghai, depending on the location, she said.
By paying extra, the customers could even choose not to wear a condom. "You don't have to worry about venereal diseases as our girls take regular health checks every month," the manager said.
But when the reporter called back soon after seeking sexual services but speaking Mandarin instead of English, she said that they only offered massage services and hung up.
According to Sweet Massage's website, its services are available in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, but they only do business by telephone, sending girls to customers' homes and hotels because they do not have a massage center.
An official with the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center told Shanghai Daily that it would investigate the website and shut it down if they found evidence it was running an illegal business.
Last month, the center received 18,710 reports from the public about illegal websites, 52.6 percent of them involving pornographic content.
