Ghost town

Hulu, a residential community bordering the city's urban and rural suburbs that has a reputation as a red light district, had more than 70 "hair salons" and "massage parlors" before the last crackdown.

Today, it is like a ghost town, with darkened shopping units and empty street-side food stalls. At 9 pm, usually the peak business hour for parlors and salons, most buildings were shuttered, with rental signs and phone numbers posted outside.

"I put the 'for rent' sign out two months ago but I've only had two people call to inquire," said landlord Chang Li, 34, as she played mahjong outside one block. "It used to be easy to rent out these apartments."

Chang said she did not rent to sex workers because the house is "near an elementary school", with the only exception being a young woman who "worked on the other side of the community" and had a child.

Most landlords in Hulu are farmers who bought the four-story buildings with the compensation they received for their land, which was swallowed up in the city expansion. Chang makes 14,000 yuan a year from her apartments.

As more than 300 sex workers rent homes here, both Hongta's CDC and Women's Federation have forged links with the landlords to help notify women of regular educational programs.

"We provide the platform, CDC provides the training," said He Liqiong, president of Hongta Women's Federation. "It used to be that prostitutes simply solicited on street corners in the city, but now they've moved into apartments and live together in this community."

He said helping sex workers with AIDS prevention is a way to protect women's rights.

"Experience has proven beyond a doubt that the most effective responses to HIV are those which protect the rights of those living with HIV and those who are most vulnerable to infection," Michael Kirby, a renowned AIDS activist and former Australian High Court Justice, said during an anti-discrimination event in Beijing in July.

"If we treat these individuals as criminals, we drive them underground, out of reach of prevention, treatment and care," he added.

Now that most "hair salons" have been closed down and sex workers have left the community, landlords complain their incomes have been severely affected.

He at the Women's Federation said the next plan is for the city government to transform Hulu into a commercial district.

In fact, work has already started. One former "hair salon" that employed more than 20 women is now a hotpot restaurant.

Guo Anfei in Kunming contributed to this story.

Names of the sex workers in this story have been changed.

(China Daily December 1, 2010)