This weekend I broke a mirror and interviewed a prostitute.

In The Beaver, a classy bar for gentlemen, I’d just won a game of table football that was pretty much a play-by-play re-enactment of the 1966 World Cup Final. When the ball hit the tin for the final goal I went bananas with joy, banged my head against the mirror, knocking it to the ground.

If Kit from The Beaver reads this, I’m sorry. Oh and whilst we’re chatting, can I have a VIP card?

It was time to make a quick exit after that, and via a couple of bars on Tongren Lu I ended up with my boss’s nephew in one of the lower class bars on Julu Lu.

It was the kind of bar that is filled with very friendly, very thirsty girls. In fact the girls are borderline prostitutes, and I’m being pretty generous with the borderline.

At some point during the evening, one of the girls saw my name card for a website called Shanghaiist

Oh you’re a journalist!

She says

Hmmm. Yes!

Said I, (not 100% truthfully).
Well after that there was no more flirting and asking me to buy her a drink, and lots more of her telling me all about the lifestyle of Shanghai (borderline) prostitutes and me asking what seemed like insightful questions at the time.

Here are the facts that I remember:

  • If you pay 45RMB for a girl’s drink, she gets 15
  • Most of the girls come from the provinces and work to send their money home
  • The girl I spoke to sends home between 500-2000RMB per month.
  • Her momma don’t ask where the money comes from (and baby don’t tell)
  • Rum makes you drunk