When the curtain of night falls on the city every day, some dim pink lights turn on in tiny hair salons dotting small streets in every neighbourhood. These lights actually mark the sites of brothels.

The salons have sign boards saying "xi tou fang" (hair washing and massage). They have several mirrors on the walls and chairs just as in ordinary hair salons, but no hair-cutting tools or similar equipment would be found inside. Usually two or three women in heavy make-up and provocative dresses sit on a sofa, visible to passers-by outside through the glass doors.

Gu Zexu, a local scholar who has completed a report on these shops, said economists have estimated that consumption of sexual services in China has reached approximately 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion).

In China, a sector that has a gross annual revenue above 1 billion yuan (US$121 million) can be considered an industry, such as the soccer industry, with its annual revenue of 2 to 3 billion yuan.

However, the sexual services "sector", with a revenue 10 times that of the soccer industry, cannot officially be named and acknowledged as an industry in the country.

"It's a hot potato for the authorities to deal with," Gu said. "It's almost impossible for the Chinese government to legalize the industry and then to keep it under control and in good order. The government has never confronted such a problem and has no theories to base any policy upon."

Lack of management

He said some areas had experimented with the policy of taxing every sex workers 500 yuan (US$60.5) a month in return for the legal recognition of their services. But eventually officials found it was too complicated to continue in this way, because there were so many different "ranks" of prostitutes.

The figure of 500 yuan was only suitable for the "high-class" girls working in KTVs, earning a daily income of at least 100 yuan on average. A large number of sex workers in cheap hair salons and massage stores could not afford that sum of money.

Gu once worked as head of an area development office in the Pudong District. He understood that the Industrial and Commercial Bureau was controlling the number of "hair salons" within any specific area by restricting licences and banning hidden rooms.

"However, people were always able to think of ways to avoid the restrictions. The number of such places has increased greatly and they all still have separate hidden rooms to conduct their business," he said.

A spokesperson with the Shanghai Police Bureau turned down the opportunity to make detailed comments on the issue to the Shanghai Star but said sexual services were "not occurring on a large scale" and the police were "working on the problem all the time."

A newly arising phenomenon has been that an increasing number of young men from rural areas now resident in the city have started to date or even marry women sex workers they have met in the salons.

Filling a niche

"A local girl may be more demanding of a high standard of living and a decent house, so such young men with their low incomes could not afford the rocketing cost of a marriage. The sexual workers were gentle with them, and also had a much lower expectation from their husbands and their lives," Gu said.

Gu also found that very few sex workers regularly demanded the use of condoms, so that venereal disease (VD) infections were very widespread among them.

Recently the influential South Weekend has also reported a dispute arising from the recently publicized Shenzhen Blue Book, a report on the development of the city, including a 16-page section about the sexual services in the "hair salons."

The rate of VD and HIV infection among the sex workers has become a great concern.

"The sex industry problem should not be neglected any longer. It is a source of instability in society due to the large number of people working in the industry who are existing in very bad conditions," Gu said.

Face to face with a sex worker

For 19-year-old Xia Yan (not her real name), the scope of the world is rather small. Her lifestyle is quite simple.

Her daily activities, for the most part, occur only at the hair-dressing salon where she works and in the apartment she rents.

Apart from their apparent respective functions, the two locations have one thing in common: they are places where Xia and her co-workers earn a living by providing customers with covert sexual services.

The hair salon is located on a small street in Pudong and its proximity to a bustling bus stop as well as the densely-populated residential communities in the area has created many business opportunities, a fact that can be proved by the cluster of quite a few similar facilities on the same street.

It has to be admitted that Xia, a native of Yangzhou of East China's Jiangsu Province, is rather good-looking and the teenage naivete that she exhibits now and then plus her casual sportswear-and-jeans dressing style makes people feel that she is little different from "normal" young girls in the city.

However, Xia soon showed her "professionalism" to the Shanghai Star reporter, who went to the salon under the guise of a customer. Xia claims that she only came to Shanghai three weeks ago and her previous jobs in Jiangsu were as a textile worker and a waitress.

"Do you want Qiao Da Bei (body massage)?" Xia asked soon after she, with her boss' nod, showed the reporter into a small backroom off the shabby salon and began massaging the reporter's arms somewhat unskillfully.

To the point

Xia was referring to having sexual intercourse with her, which is supposed to take place in the apartment she rents, about five minutes' walk away from the salon.

To Xia, Qiao Da Bei can be more profitable than fondling or Da Feiji (helping customers masturbate) which are supposed to be done in the backroom which also doubles as a dining room for Xia and her co-workers.

For sexual intercourse, Xia normally charges 150 yuan (US$18) per person of which 50 yuan will be handed to her boss. She receives 100 yuan (US$12) for each masturbation, from which the boss will deduct half as commission. A sex-free hair-wash and massage service costs 50 yuan (US$6) per hour at the salon.

Xia said the highest number of Qiao Da Bei services she had performed in one day was three and she once had a record six customers for masturbation.

"Most of our customers are middle-aged men in their 30s or 40s who work in Shanghai without their wives' companionship," said Xia.

"I almost have no feelings when having sex with them." However, she said that she felt "sick" when she had her first masturbation job.

Indifference

When asked about her feelings about her work, Xia surprisingly showed a kind of indifference for the profession regarded by many as shameful.

"It works well with me because I can make money quickly," she said.

Although the teenager claimed she had not yet received her first month's salary, she thought she could well earn some 3,000 to 4,000 yuan (US$360-480) a month, almost 10 times her previous earnings as a textile worker.

But Xia is not entirely satisfied with the job. "It's really boring staying all day in here," she said. Apart from when work walks in from time to time, Xia and two other sex workers -- who are 17 and 18 -- spend the days chatting and watching an old TV in the salon.

Xia further said that business in her salon, like its counterparts down the street, is a little slack these days because of intensified efforts to crack down on prostitution.

"We are now ordered to close around 11:00 o'clock every night, though staying open overnight usually brings more business opportunities," said Xia.

Towards the end of her talk, Xia was urged by her partners twice to quickly finish the conversation.

"You know time is money to us," said Xia, with an apologetic expression when closing the brief conversation.

(Shanghai Star May 27, 2004)