Days and Nights in Dongguan

They couldn't believe he refused "service"

I have lived in China from almost eight years and I am based in Jiangsu provice. I lived for some months in Guangdong.

During these eight years I have been to Dongguan four times. The first impression about the city was not good. The sky was grey and the buildings looked old, despite the fact that it's a "new" city.

Business-wise, I had a lot of suppliers there and it is quite a resourceful city because you can find almost everything, from textiles to electronic devices.

Each time I have been there I thought I was staying at the Sheraton but actually the top floor of the building was managed by another hotel, I don't remember the name. I traveled around China for business a lot, always with business partners or suppliers but as soon as they step foot in Dongguan they behaved very differently than any other city we have been. They all were so excited.

The first thing they were going to do was to check in at the hotel and rush to a sauna place. Here, you can believe it or not, but I have never been to those places because I am not interested and I don't like the idea of doing that where other hundreds of thousands of people did it. So, when they used to go to sauna I would go chill out at the hotel and work.

Around 6 o’clock was dinner time and it was always quite a normal business dinner with toasts to their afternoon performance and planning the evening. I don't like saunas but I quite like KTV.

I remember that we used to go to sing at the one inside the Sheraton building. You can access from the lobby and it was on the third floor. It was a normal KTV, but the girls were all available to follow you to the room and, especially after a huge purchase, it was so hard to refuse.

When I successfully managed to go back to the room drunk, but alone, the elevator and the floors was crowded with girls that were called to the rooms, for a room "service". You could ask them to come to the room stand in line - KTV style - and chose one, or two, or three. They were not afraid or shy to sleep with a customer and some colleagues.

That night they knocked on my room door at least three times and I politely was refusing the "service" even if they told me it was already paid. I actually like girls but I am always scared that police or something will come and this will compromise my career and the path I am following to get rich.

The next day, to sweat out all the beers and whisky I had the previous night I got up at 6am and went out for a run. The street was still crowded with girls in night dresses and they were still - or already - offering "service".

After reading some articles about what happened recently I am first of all glad that I did nothing there and, secondly, I am worried about the city. What are all the people involved in that business going to do?

Alberto from Italy