http://shanghaiist.com/2008/08/17/olympics_proving_to_be_a_downer_for.php All comments for Olympics proving to be a downer for Beijing businesses en-us 2009 shang_kenneth Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:00:13 +0800 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss kenneth@shanghaiist.com kenneth@shanghaiist.com 60 http://shanghaiist.com/2008/08/17/olympics_proving_to_be_a_downer_for.php#comment-1438454 http://shanghaiist.com/2008/08/17/olympics_proving_to_be_a_downer_for.php#comment-1438454 Comments Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:20:56 +0800 <p>@Spelunker There are many more restrictions in place, such as any visitor at any time to any room has to register at hotel front desks, rather than previously after 11 p.m. The bureaucrats somehow figured out, that sex does not only happen at night. The hookers at Maggies were all Mongolian, a couple of Russians and Philippinas - gone now, no visa. Positively, no Chinese hookers, only Chinese animators/waitresses. That place is said to be spiked with hidden cameras for producing compromising video footage of foreign dignitaries (so reportedly were the apartments of some of the hookers), the previous and the current location being conveniently close to embassies and diplomatic living compounds. Similar setups used to exist in all former communist countries, so no surprise here, not new at all, yet another foreign concept that China has copied successfully. Maggies never got closed during any campaign (easy to understand, if you figured who runs Magggies), therefore the closure this time did raise eyebrows. Apparently this is in connection to some prostitute murder cases.</p> http://shanghaiist.com/2008/08/17/olympics_proving_to_be_a_downer_for.php#comment-1438313 http://shanghaiist.com/2008/08/17/olympics_proving_to_be_a_downer_for.php#comment-1438313 Comments Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:27:29 +0800 <p>Beijing authorities banged their heads against the Echo Wall at Temple of Heaven in an attempt to find a solution to the capital's current image as a "no fun" zone. Bars popular with foreigners. such as Maggie's, have been temporarily shut down and prostitutes have been rounded up and sent to selected provincial cities not hosting Olympic events (Urumqi, Shigatse, and Lanzhou). In order to "erectify" the situation, health bureau party chief Jin Dapeng ordered 400,000 free condoms to be distributed to 90,000 rooms of 424 hotels rated 3 stars or above in order to promote "safe sex during Olympics". (What about the cheap two star hotels and international youth hostels?) I kid you not! Here's the official story from Xinhua, titled "Beijing advocates safe sex during Olympics" http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/15/content_9350131.htm</p>