To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. A middle-aged man in a business suit entered the nightclub and placed his order.
A moment later, it was delivered: a pretty woman in a flowing robe eased into the seat beside him with a glittering lipsticky smile. Filled with 50 or so love seats and sofas and about 15 private karaoke singing rooms, the International Trade Club represents the kind of life that people come from all over China to taste.
There is easy money, easy housing and, sometimes, easy love. Hainan Island, of which Haikou is the capital, is a tropical province that China has proclaimed its newest and largest special economic zone. Partly because it is separated from the Chinese mainland by a mile strip of water, the authorities give it special dispensation to stray from economic and social orthodoxy.
As a result, many Chinese are leaving their homes to forge a new life in what is in some ways a Chinese equivalent of the Wild West. I can pursue my own desires and develop my own talents. Others, like the young woman in the nightclub, come to seek their fortune. The woman, who refused to be identified, said she had obtained a leave from her position as an assistant to a senior official in Hangzhou. She added that she had not told her parents that her new job was to spend her evenings cuddling up to strange men and plying them with drinks.
The hostesses at the club are not all prostitutes, and sex is conducted elsewhere after negotiations strictly between the hostess and the customer. The woman said she had decided that she would not return to hotel rooms with her customers.
