Prostitution

Warning: Naked butt below.

"Yeah she is kind of hot, isn't she, in a slutty way?" said the cabbie, as Zayd was ogling a girl in a magazine ad. Like many Beijing taxi drivers, he was a short and squat man, dressed in a blue short-sleeved collar shirt which was worn at the edges. His face was stout, accenting an impish grin that lasted for our entire journey. "So you guys study here huh? You guys have Chinese girlfriends?"

"Nope, our game sucks," we replied.

"Well I can introduce you to some. They're really beautiful and they'll help you with your Chinese! Yeah I can take you to a great KTV place, they're great in bed too and not that expensive. Then you can get their numbers later too, and its near where you live, not far at all. And the KTV joint is really clean!"

This was getting interesting. "What about the girls on the business cards?" I asked.

"No no you don't want the business card types, they'll quote a price and some girl who's not that attractive, will come to your place, then before she leaves, some big types will burst in and demand more money. Foreigners like you must be protected. It can be dangerous. But these girls I'll introduce you to, they'll be the best!"

Business cards with photos of attractive girls on one side and with a slogan or list of services on the reverse, are popular (see photos below). In Korea they're a bit more explicit and you get to see frontal and sometimes full nudity. I picked a few up in Korea off of cars, but the Chinese ones were literally thrown in my face as my taxi had stopped at a traffic light. This guy walking by flung a bunch of business cards in the open window and walked off.

Then there are the ubiquitous hair parlors. Barbershops open at night with neon pink lights and women sitting in the front, most often do not provide hair styling services. Usually there's a back room where things happen or the girls take you somewhere else. A friend of mine, recalled his first few months in China years ago, when he was walking down the street to his apartment and saw one of these places open at 11pm. Needing a haircut, his thought was, "China's great, I can get a cheap haircut at this hour? Sweet!" Not being able to speak or understand Mandarin, he boldly entered and indicated to the astonished women inside that he wanted a haircut. When they awkwardly put the haircloth on him, and grabbed a pair of scissors, he inquired whether or not they were going to wash his hair. He got the idea that it wasn't a traditional place to get one's hair cut when the woman indicated that they didn't have shampoo. On a second glance, he noticed that the women were wearing relatively revealing clothing and were giggling.

Korean Business Card

24 Hours, Massage and Event

Chinese Cards

The one on the left reads "Idle Massage"
The one on the right (in yellow type) reads "Feeling of Western Love." Below that (in red) it reads "Star Service"

The one on the left reads "Models, Young Students, will look after you. Below "Massage" it says something like "Pretty girls who are adept at tightening men's clock springs." Hey its what the dictionary gave me, make of it what you will. You can all read the English "The whole body cares to massage, the foot bottom cares to masssage, the that health cares massage, the Russian young lady massage. What's interesting is the Chinese beside it is completely different. It says, "Full Body Massage, Korean girl massage,Thai style massage, Russian girl massage," so the last bit matches up. Finally it says, "5 star service is a successful person's first choice." Oh and for everyone who wants to keep track of such essential business expenses, you know when handing in those tax returns and expense reports, they "provide real tax receipts"

Ok the one on the right is far easier, not only to translate but also because the Chinese and English actually match up. Top left says, "List of Services." Way bottom part says, "Models, Young Students."

In the end, we got the cabbie's phone number, but haven't called it. Seriously.