Crackdown fails to cool sex trade's ardor
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Prostitution is booming again in cities in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, just months after a nationwide crackdown.
In Guangdong's Dongguan City, prostitutes are now seeking clients at top hotels instead of small bath houses and massage parlours, according to the Legal Daily.
And customers are expected to pay more, with call girls who previously charged 300 yuan (US$46) to 400 yuan asking for between 500 yuan and 700 yuan.
The price hike is due to the high risk of being caught and the rising cost of renting the high-end venues, said the newspaper.
Last year saw a national campaign against vice in more than 20 provinces and cities.
Many entertainment venues offering sex services shut down in cities in Guangdong and Fujian, leaving sex workers unemployed.
This also hit the business of cabbies in Dongguan - a city that was dubbed "paradise for men" due to its thriving sex industry. Some taxi drivers had worked for venues, ferrying customers to meet call girls, said the newspaper.
But now that the campaign has ended, the sex industry is back, cabbies told the paper.
Dongguan taxi drivers said they could earn 20 to 30 yuan for taking a customer to a venue offering sex services. Some said they could "enjoy one free service" after taking eight customers.
Meanwhile, in a four-star hotel in Dongguan, a manager offered to provide call girls to a reporter.
And in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, the newspaper discovered hotel waiters offering to arrange "special services."
Scantily clad young women could be seen wandering around hotel lobbies, the newspaper reported.
