Dongguan after the crackdown on pornography

A year ago, the city’s nightlife was just getting started. A year ago, the city’s nightlife was just getting started. (Still from “A Touch of Sin”)

“Every year around the Spring Festival, it’s time to go through the motions.” “Someone will come and tell us to stop for two days,” He said.

He used to be a security guard at the hotel, watching the show. Once someone came along, he and his colleagues were able to resist in flesh and blood. But he always felt that the development is not good, there is no future. “Very idle, too idle to kill time.”

“Be sure to take a promising job.” That’s jay’s idea. He applied for a transfer to marketing. Every night after that, he would dress in a black suit and glide elegantly through the hotel’s boxes. When he entered the room, however, he had no dignity at all — “in plain English, he who crowns his guests takes away his dignity.”

In the box he saw a luxury the outside world had never seen before. He once saw that the highest consumption of customers was more than 800,000 yuan, and they all issued invoices in the name of eating to take away false accounts.

“A plate of cabbage 85, a bottle of wine tens of thousands of, so open.”

Every month, he can easily earn at least ten thousand yuan, but his body is also easily destroyed. “When I first came, I didn’t drink too much. Now I can drink three dozen (a dozen of twelve bottles) of beer and three jin of white wine.” To this day, he still has frequent stomachaches.

In 2008, Xiao Jie went to Dongguan for the first time. “Yellow”, the city’s base color, has become the first window for many people to know Dongguan. After getting into the taxi, Xiao Jie asked his master to take him to a fun place. Shifu said there were more interesting places to go. Little hero do not know, casually asked a “what fun?” Shifu replied with a phrase that only became popular online in 2012 — you know what I mean. The taxi driver takes Him to a sauna hotel when he only wants to go to a singing place.

In Dongguan, taxi drivers take guests to hotels, is a very common way of cooperation. In the business, they call such guests “big fish”. Huanyu had also been one of the taxi drivers outsourced to Xiaojie’s hotel.

Midnight rent

When Huanyu just arrived in Dongguan to open a taxi, this kind of cooperation had to be completed through an intermediary — a gas station. Some hotel marketing managers in order to better sell the hotel service to attract guests, will go to the gas station to ask staff to help fill up the taxi driver to introduce customers. For every guest the driver brings to the hotel, the reward is a two-litre petrol voucher at the petrol station.

Later, with the competition fierce, the hotel went straight to the gas station and handed out contact cards to the taxi drivers. “Sometimes I get contact cards from three or four hotels for a single gas recharge.” Huanyu said.

Hotels also bid up prices to compete, offering taxi drivers anywhere from 60 yuan to 100 yuan. Since 2012, the “travel rate” has been basically set for hotel guests: 200 yuan per guest. That’s almost half of what night drivers earn.

“The average income for a hotel guest is about 2,000 yuan a month.” Huanyu said. “We had a very high status in the hotel. We took guests to the hotel and had to give us free drinks and fruit.”

At that time, want to drive a taxi in Dongguan, in addition to pay a member by the month, still have to pay tens of thousands of yuan of extra one-time range of “tea money”. Even so, there were long lines of people willing to take cabs.

“At that time, money is easy to earn, pull up the young lady, they also generous money.” Although young lady gives money generous, but also occasionally have risk. Huan Yu said that one of his fellow townsmen took a young lady, but because the other party suspected that the townsfolk had taken a detour, he called in a bunch of gangsters and beat up his fellow townsfolk severely. He is still a disabled person today.

But Yuwa is still very generous, “the young lady in the customer’s anger, vent to us is also understandable, we just tolerate it.”

Before 2011, taxis had to stop after midnight at hotels they had paid for. Each hotel solicits guests outside will be more than a dozen taxis jointly contracted to the hotel side to pay a certain contract fee. If not within the contract of the taxi to the hotel gate, light warning, heavy then hit the car.

Midnight is the best time for taxis every night. Huanyu said that miss metropolis at this time halftime, go out to buy a snack or snack to eat. The next wave of business would have to wait until three o ‘clock in the morning — when the ladies would leave. “A dozen girls in one evening. Basically keep in the vicinity of the hotel, do not run empty to go outside soliciting guests.”

On March 5th, if it hadn’t been for me, Huanyu would have gone back to the rented house for a rest. He plans to have signed a car contract to drive full, to accompany his wife and children back home in Hubei. He ticked his finger and calculated that there were still 37 days to go.

“Now there are no ghosts on the streets, and most of the cars go home at about eleven o ‘clock.”

Unsellable condoms

Round-the-world open night bus, basically in “open a day to lose a day” situation. “My monthly income is about 4,000 yuan less than before.” This income, which before the crackdown was basically the net profit he made driving a taxi every month, has disappeared all of a sudden.

Two months later, yuan Baocheng, then mayor of Dongguan, reiterated in an interview with CCTV that the crackdown on pornography would not affect the city’s economy. When I repeated Yuan baocheng’s words to Huanyu, he grinned and said, “Of course he said there was no impact. The mayor didn’t have to take a taxi.”

At the two sessions in 2014, yuan baocheng was asked by a reporter whether the crackdown on pornography had any impact on Dongguan’s economy. He did not answer, also be hey hey a smile. Later, in an interview with CCTV, he explained that he was not hey-hey-y, but the reporter made up the scene.

However, in the two months after the crackdown, it did not have much impact on them. Xiaojie said that at that time the hotel and young lady are in a wait-and-see state, chose to stay in Dongguan for the time being. A day after CCTV aired the undercover video, dongguan officials announced a three-month crackdown on prostitution with much fanfare. On the same day, someone made a map of the relocation of people in Dongguan in 8 hours.

“That day to go there are not many young ladies, to go are ready to have fun in Dongguan guests. The little hero said.

At first, the hotel felt that the yellow storm will soon be over, the second is that if the young lady scattered, if there are guests, not good reception. Then give young lady put a month of leave, allow them to be in Dongguan periphery to have a rest, in order to call at any time. See you in a month.

Xiaojie know a lady told him that she chose to stay in Dongguan temporarily, the main reason is afraid of a crackdown on pornography to go home, it is easy to expose their identity.

Carpin, who runs a convenience store next to the hotel, said the crackdown hasn’t had much impact on business for two months. He often sees young ladies who used to work in hotels still hang out in the hotels, but dressed more conservatively than before the crackdown.

Sometimes, they go to Carpin’s convenience store, packing bags of groceries and snacks to stay indoors for a few days and have plenty of dry food.

“At that time, the average monthly turnover was around 110,000 yuan.” Carpin said he operates a 24-hour convenience store. There are about 6,000 convenience stores like this one in Dongguan, almost all located near hotels.

The substantial impact of the crackdown on pornography on some industries began in April. Around the middle of March, seeing no hope of resuming business, the landlord dismissed the hotel’s 200 ladies and let them go their separate ways. Xiaojie also is in right now transition, went to express company.

Since then, many hotels in Dongguan have been redecorated and converted into office buildings.

Before early April, For half a month, Huanyu could always carry a few girls with large suitcases, almost always going to the station. Huanyu understood that the girls he pulled were mostly young ladies.

The development of erotic industry is a symbol of the city’s alienation and prosperity. The development of erotic industry is a symbol of the city’s alienation and prosperity.

Real estate agents were the first to feel the effects of the crackdown. Zeng Dai, who works at a real estate agency, said a wave of check-outs began in earnest in late March. They are mainly small apartment single apartments and serviced apartment tenants. “Most of the people who came were girls, and they said they would not rent the house, and they didn’t care whether the rent was refundable or not.” “Maybe they work in more open places, so they need more privacy when they go home,” Zeng said. Little hero also says, young lady has a few people to share a house to live together, basically it is a person to rent a small family.

Since then, the transaction volume of second-hand housing in Dongguan has increased by 30% compared with the same period last year, while the transaction volume has declined by 30% compared with the same period last year. The location of the transaction is basically near the large hotels. “When homeowners see that it’s not so easy to rent out a house, they think it’s better to cash out on the market.” “Of that 30 percent, Miss owns about 15 percent,” said a real estate analyst.

At that time, a micro blog went viral on the Internet. Content is roughly: in the early 1990s, Dongguan anti-pornography, within a few days all the savings office cash was empty, the bank run. Later, the police had to inform the bank to keep enough cash. The content of the microblog is mostly humorous, but some of it is realistic. Xiao Jie said that after the crackdown on pornography, the first thing hotel girls consider is whether the money can be taken out.

An economist in Guangdong province has previously told the media that the sex industry drives consumption in Dongguan to about 50 billion yuan a year, accounting for about a tenth of the city’s GDP. Later, Dongguan mayor Yuan Baocheng refuted the claim. “One statistic we have is 1.5 percent of the economy,” he said. In 2013, Dongguan’s GDP was 550 billion yuan.”

After seeing off the young lady, Huanyu found that he could not get visitors.

This is the overall feeling of the 8,000 taxis in Dongguan. Then, in late April, there was a general taxi strike in Dongguan. After several days of negotiations, dongguan officials agreed to a monthly reduction of 1,250 yuan per taxi.

After the drivers went on strike, Carpin saw his convenience store lose more than a thousand dollars a day. “By the end of May, I calculated that my monthly turnover was less than 30,000 yuan. These goods are mostly things that ladies and guests like to consume, such as cigarettes and snacks.”

The most immediate impact will be on condom sales. Before the crackdown, up to 13 boxes of condoms could be sold a day, but after the crackdown, sales were virtually zero. This situation, has continued until now, there is still no sign of recovery.

Face and lining

Although the Dongguan government has reduced taxi fares, many people are still reluctant to rent a car.

At least 500 taxis in Dongguan have been idle since June, Mr. Huan said. People from the taxi company would often call him and ask him to help introduce fellow villagers to hire cars. “Mama of, introduce have a fart to use, can’t earn money again, return not be free the person that gives taxi company works.” “Huanyu complained.

In 1978, Hong Kong businessmen in Dongguan Humen town set up the country’s first foreign material processing factory – Taiping handbag Factory. Since then, the famous economic model of “three come and one make up” has been started in Dongguan. Later, with the industrial transformation and upgrading of Shenzhen, a large number of manufacturing industries flowed into Dongguan, thus laying the foundation of the manufacturing city. Ding Ping was one of the first migrant workers to enter Dongguan, where a large number of migrants have poured into the city.

After working with some savings, Ding opened a small beauty salon next to a star-rated hotel in Houjie. In the heyday of the service industry, there were countless beauty salons. These hair salons are basically a stopover for girls before they go to work.

Between five and seven o ‘clock each night, the young lady would walk out of the rented house, grab a modified bicycle, sit on the black leather cushions in the back seat, and gently grip the rider’s waist as they drove to the hair salon next to the hotel where they worked. Ding Ping said that the general ladies are to save trouble, will bring cosmetics over to call staff for their makeup, go out to the hotel to work.

Of course, young lady is to cannot walk hotel gate, “the boss is afraid of inauspicious.”

Ding said his shop can accommodate at least 30 women a night for makeup, which typically costs between 20 yuan and 40 yuan per person. After the crackdown, he reduced his income by more than 30,000 yuan a month. One of his friends opened as many as 18 beauty and hair salons, and now there are only two left.

How to get rid of the “yellow” Dongguan to achieve economic recovery, dongguan has become a bigger problem. How to get rid of the “yellow” Dongguan to achieve economic recovery, dongguan has become a bigger problem.

“Miss took at least two-fifths of the people in Dongguan.” Ding said a restaurant owned by another friend also lost more than 20,000 yuan in monthly sales.

The development of dongguan’s erotic industry is almost synchronous with its industrialization. If the manufacturing industry is the face of Dongguan, then the erotic industry is the back of Dongguan.

“Shenzhen is a special economic zone and Guangzhou is the provincial capital, and their every move is watched by the world. It’s a tightrope walk to develop the porn industry on a large scale in these places. “Other nearby cities, either with a smaller economy or a smaller population, seem less attractive to the discerning businessman.” Some media have previously analyzed the reasons for the growth of dongguan’s sex industry.

Obviously, besides geographical factors, the manufacturing base and the floating population from all over the country also provide the best guarantee for the development of the erotic industry. The service standards are redefined by industrial procedures, which are called “Dongguan-style service” or “ISO service”. More than 10 million floating population not only provide consumers but also consumers for “Dongguan-style service”.

ISO, which was originally an industrial product certification standard, has been moved here to demonstrate a new service standard to the outside world with rigor and seriousness.

When Chen Dong, on his first business trip to Guangxi, saw the words “provide authentic Dongguan-style service” on a paper copy of a hotel room, he had no idea what it meant. It wasn’t until years later, when he went to Dongguan, opened a small clinic and met many of the industry’s servers, that he really understood what this meant.

Most of these sex workers started out as factory workers, like Ding ping. The youth on the assembly line is cheap after all, eventually some people are not willing to let the youth become a working procedure on the assembly line, they go out of the factory one after another, heading for the hotel.

Of course, they also inevitably go to the hospital. Chen dong said that young women often go to the clinic for treatment, “are some girls common gynecological diseases.” “They also don’t hide their identities from me. They often come to see doctors, and some of them are very familiar with me.” Chen Dong says, young lady always long illness becomes a doctor, want to deceive them on medication, basically impossible.

Before the crackdown, Chen’s clinic earned about 10,000 yuan a day. After the crackdown, his daily income was only about 6,000 yuan. At this rate, the clinic’s turnover is down by more than one million a year.

Today, Mr. Chen said, Dongguan is “as depressed as it has been for 5,000 years” and should be the cleanest city in China.

(At the request of the interviewer, with the exception of Yuan Baocheng, the mayor of Dongguan, the rest of the characters are pseudonyms)