In this series, Tuoi Tre investigative journalists report on prostitution in Chinese towns bordering Vietnam; Vietnamese women being forced into the flesh market; and trafficking rings, among other issues. Once home to many brick kilns, Xam Cao is now a run-down place Vietnamese and Chinese traders visit for cheap sex. We then promised to buy three sessions costing VND, in total, after which her sad and exhausted face suddenly brightened.
Whenever we asked a question, the girl replied in short, blunt answers. But in the end, we managed to learn that her name is Nga and that she is from Nam Dinh Province in northern Vietnam. Asked if she voluntarily came to China for this job, Nga replied that she had been tricked by a Hanoi man, adding that she spent one year as a hotel prostitute in Vietnam before becoming unwanted and drifting to the other side of the border to work. She too was once tricked but later lived with a Chinese pimp and became a procuress herself.
A girl stands by a brothel in bad condition in Dongxing town, Guangxi Province in China. Tuoi Tre. After talking with Nga we continued exploring the area. The red light districts in Dongxing cater to both rich and poor classes. Even the hotel adjacent to the restaurant we had lunch at had some 10 Vietnamese girls on hand. Disguised brothels mostly come in the form of barber shops and massage parlors. Whenever we walked around, women in skimpy outfits surrounded us.
When our local guide stopped us at a place he knew, one Chinese woman whisked us in. Inside, behind a living room only small enough to contain a table and several chairs, were a series of small compartments, some with the curtains closed.
The covered compartments indicate they are occupied with clients. In Dongxing even female tram drivers are ready to recommend places where you can buy sex. After leaving the red light districts in Dongxing, we took a bus to Jiangping - another town in Guangxi Province. We were on an old bus around noon when three cute girls, probably no older than 18, stepped on. As they were hemmed in by six big men, we took a wild guess that they were prostitutes on the way to their clients or back to their brothel home.
