Most of us have encountered them. Beauty salons that are somehow still open past midnight. Massage parlors where the massages are not the most exciting thing on the menu. Prostitution is officially illegal in China, and has been since the founding of the Republic. It is considered one of those old feudal evils, something that keeps women down and degrades society in general. And yet, despite its illegality, and the public stance against prostitution, it persists here, if not to a greater degree, than certain to a more public degree than it does in countries like America, where underlying conservative values keep prostitution underground.
In China, however, the general tolerance levels for the sex trade seem, at least on the surface, to be higher. I, a woman with no need or desire to ever visit a prostitute, nonetheless know where I could likely find one should the need arise. Foreigners in China are often targeted by prostitutes, and it is a sad fact that there are many foreign expats here who are no more than sex tourists.
Many men find, when arriving in China, that sex comes cheap. These women are generally beautiful, and eager to bed a foreigner, who is considered a possible ticket to a better life. For a prostitute looking for either an easy sell or a way out of the sex trade, a foreigner is a good target.
One only has to look as far as Thailand to see copious examples of bar girls who have made a habit of dating, and in some cases marrying, foreigners. The girls are pretty and charming; many have sad — and true — stories of families back home, of poverty-filled childhoods, of genuine need.
It is easy to fall for such a girl, even if she is up front about her line of work. For, unlike perhaps other countries, where the line between prostitutes and non-prostitutes is clearly defined, in China there is a large grey area between being an actual working girl, and a girl who, well, sometimes does some work on the side.
