[SEAJ]

I don’t know if it was the very hot weather or….. ! But Chang Ping really felt totally lifeless; gone are the throngs of girls and mongers walking about and I now mostly just see morose, blank-faced people going about their business. Hotels empty and advertising cheap rooms – Swan Lake RMB 128, Manhattan 178 etc. - or even just closed down like HMTL. Yeah, the one which had opened with so much (too much) fanfare just a few months ago – serves them right actually – LOL!

I’d d say at least a quarter of the shops on SWL road are closed: - most nightspots like Mango (except 18 and California Red), just about all the telephone shops, Hong Kong style café Yuen Long, Legend changed hands for only a rumored RMB 150K, Jin Hao abandoned and just re-opened but empty… and of course the previously ubiquitous hair and nail shops all deprived of any custom or just abandoned. But…good news… no traffic jams at all any time of the day or night!! Really a sorry sight, the whole street! The whole of Chang Ping too actually

Downtown, the new LCC mall, Huaren, 8 mall etc have just about no customers at all – but surprisingly, still a whole bunch of street hawkers outside. And what’s odd is that a lot of these street hawkers are quite fetching young lassies – who I of course suspect are ex-WG’s trying to still hold on and survive. I really tip my hat to the resourcefulness and determination of the young ladies of China!! And BTW - I did also have a nice Footsy at the SWL hotel - no restrictions/not much and the girls all quite chatty and of course very flirty!

And girls – yeah, what’s left of them! In fact I had gone up as one of my especially nice regulars had at last decided to pack it all in and go back to work closer to home and return to selling clothes! Had a grand ole “good bye” session with her and …. Off she went! The same thing with a few other old regulars when I contacted them – mostly already all also flown the coop.

OK, no problem - turned to my trusty list of mommies – and of course each one of them was so happy to hear from me! Right away they sent me pictures of their girls …. A disappointing 3, 4 or 5 only from each one coz in the past, they regularly had at least a dozen or so in their herd. Oh well, never mind! I then of course reconfirmed what I want, will or will not accept and most importantly, the price. They all stated the old pricing – 250 from the Swan Lake/Yalan area, but 200 from the Hui Mei alley momma – up from the 150 I had gotten for years even up to just before the yanda – but again, never mind! One of the Mommies was laughing, telling me that with most others, she’d quote 300 – and 9 times out of 10, the guy at the other end of the phone just readily accepts. “You guys are so desperate these days, Ha Ha!!" So guys – please do stand your ground when dealing with these mommies! And by the way, if your rate is 250, your gal have to give her mommy 100, if it was 300, she has to give 110.

And somehow or other, one of my old KTV mommies WeChatted me out of the clear blue sky ….. hmmmm…. offering her girls at ridiculous prices; especially the fact that a couple of them, I know to be just BBS gals! She followed up with a phone call and when I confronted her with this tidbit, she of course just sheepishly admitted that she’d take on ANY girl who’s still around and willing to work; but that to be fair to her other “Genuine KTV Princesses,” she had to so price quite uniformly. So guys…. Again – Caveat Emptor!

Then a friend excitedly wanted me to go to Huizhou with him as he’d been receiving Texts/WeChat etc. from his old CP/CA sauna managers, offering great service there. Good thing I did NOT go with him! A 90 minute drive each way, RMB 70 non-refundable 3 hour hotel room fee and only then being shown a menagerie of girls for an additional 600 to 1,000 each. Oh, he said the service as “OK” but it’s the cloak and dagger, the stealth, the walking up and down back staircases etc. which all conspired to make his a less than satisfactory session. And of course then the long drive back to CP!

I also went to Xing Party and had to laugh at the “regulation” 16x40 clear window cut out roughly from each door coupled with the huge convex shop-lifting mirror fitted out at each room. Haven’t they ever heard of electronic cameras? That if they REALLY ARE determined to deter illicit activities, that the use of cheap and discreet cameras with recording function would be the way to do so? But then again, I-say-you-say IS a proven method for authorities – real or otherwise – to extract money from you ain’t it?! LOL

Anyway, I guess CP is still “OK” if you do have contacts and don’t expect things to be the way it used to be. And I’d rather suspect that things ain’t ever gonna recover – at least not for a good long while. And do be careful if you do decide to still go up – It’s really the Wild Wild West these days there now! Hmmm…. Is that what WWW. mean?

Just IMHO

SEAJ