Sex in China – Top 10 reasons not to visit a prostitute

There’s an awful lot of common sense reasons not to frequent prostitutes while going abroad.  There’s quite a few more not to do it in a place where you don’t speak the language.  We just happened to be most knowledgeable about why one should   not to do it while in China. Here is our top 10.  Added suggestions are welcome.

10.) Third world prices means third world safety hazards. The  prostitute businesses that the average expatriate, in China, is likely to come across (affordable on a teacher’s salary) are built on a business model that cater to China’ average and below average males; the poor, the migrants, and the men who do nothing but spend their money on prostitutes.  There’s no regulation of these places because, officially, prostitution is illegal and doesn’t exist, in China.  So, typically, the places you’re likely to meet prostitutes are full of germs with a lot of star power; the kind of star power that forces the NIH to dole out billions of dollars each year to study them.

Hint 1 (of 2): If the prostitute establishment has a barbershop-like sign or neon lighting, then that’s the kind of place I’m talking about.

9.) Not to belabor the safety point, but the Chinese are really ignorant about HIV/AIDS. Prostitutes in China regularly have sex with men without using condoms.  Fifty percent of Chinese think that HIV is transmitted by kissing.

8.) In case you do contract a sexually transmitted disease after visiting a prostitute, your travel insurance will likely not cover the cost.  This also holds true for any international insurance you may have.  Typically, only pre-existing STDs are covered.

7.) If you choose to pursue treatment for your STD while in China expect that  positive tests will be reported to the Ministry of Health. This can substantially complicate matters if you own a business, in China, or if you are the type of expat that likes to go in and out of the country often.

6.) It’s not unheard of for businessmen to get blackmailed with photos/video of past prostitute hook-ups anywhere, in the world.   Now just think about the fact that China is reportedly the world’s largest exporter of prostitutes.  If you’re ever ‘offered’ a girl for the night by a potential business partner, you have to ask yourself, who is providing those prostitutes?

Is your luck that night being determined by a random process whereby gangs of young girls somehow find one another and form empowered prostitute gangs?  No.  It’s the hei she hui ren  (mafia) and the government, stupid.  Being ‘offered’ a prostitute is the equivalent of letting someone wire tap your house, finding exactly where all of bugs are located and then reading from a random hate group publication, written in the first person, in a spot where you’re sure the bugs are going to get the best reception.

Hint 2 (of 2): If the prostitute establishment is an expensive KTV, or has no neon lights and serves expensive tea/fruit, then this is the kind of place where you can expect to get blackmailed.

5.) Prostitutes are trustworthy, more so than you, and definitely more than China’s police and government officials – at least that’s what Chinese netizens think.  Don’t expect any sort of public outcry if you somehow get duped by a prostitute.

4.) If you try to  blackmail anyone you have sex with, like this idiot, or anyone you perceive has wronged you,  the same netizens that don’t trust you/like you will use their human flesh engine to find you, and embarrass you…and then further harass you.  When this happens, the best that you can pray for is that you don’t become a popular Chinese meme.

3.) China is not Las Vegas. Just because you don’t speak Chinese, and you think that Chinese people don’t care about what you do, they’ll still notice when you come home with a prostitute and they’ll talk about it.  This point, in as many words, was made to me by an American woman who had lived, in Beijing, for twenty-five years (!!!), twenty of which were spent with her husband.  During the 20th year of their time together, in China, she found out that he had 5 regular girlfriends spread across China, several children, and at least one Chinese wife.  The way she found out is that she accidentally overheard her Chinese neighbors talking about a white man that lived in the neighborhood and frequently was seen with different Chinese women, one of whom, they saw, had a half-Chinese child.

That woman ended up becoming a marriage counselor for expat couples living in Beijing, and she always tries her best to drive home the point that what you do, in China, does have consequences.

2.) Again, China is not Las Vegas. The people that come to see you, visit you, hang out with you, in China, will report everything you’re doing when they get back home.  There is no such thing as a ‘China code’ that secures all of your adventures abroad will not come back home to haunt you.  The bigger your goals, in life, the more this aspect of China (the fact that the rules of decency apply there as much as anywhere else) should factor into the decisions you make.

Moreover, there is no ‘safe’ prostitution establishment, where everyone knows your name.  See Hint 1 and 2 above – either you’re putting yourself at high risk for STDs, or for blackmail, or for both.

1.) Prostitution has a stench that can be sensed from far away.  Once you have it, it’s never coming off, and you will get blackballed from many societies and networks.  If your boss wants to take you to have some fun, chances are its not a good boss to be working for anyway, and it’s certainly not someone you want to emulate.  In fact, chances are that his network has already suffered from the many habits he’s picked up in his life.