Lilith
10-01-2005, 07:45 AM
(gg)
BEIJING (Reuters) - A red-light district next to a
"Red Tourism" site dedicated to China's revolutionary
martyrs meant some visitors were getting more than
"patriotic education," Xinhua news agency said
Thursday.
A court in southwestern Sichuan province this week
sentenced a hotel manager and four accomplices to jail
terms of eight months to 12 years for providing
prostitutes next to the Martyrs' Mausoleum.
Police and officials bribed to ignore the illegal
activities near the monument in the city of Luzhou had
previously been punished, Xinhua said on its English
Web site, www.chinaview.cn, without specifying.
"(The hotel manager) organized sexual services and
striptease performances," it said.
China has declared 2005 the year of Red Tourism,
promoting travels to sites where Communist heroes were
born, lived or fought.
The mausoleum stands as tribute to 64 people who died
for the revolutionary cause since 1911, when China's
last imperial dynasty, the Qing, was overthrown.
The Communist Party all but eradicated prostitution in
China after sweeping to power in 1949, yet it has
returned in a big way over the past two decades of
market reforms.
The crimes were exposed by state television early this
year, prompting an investigation and the arrests of
the five suspects.
Xinhua hailed the case as an example of "aggressive
investigative journalism in China."
BEIJING (Reuters) - A red-light district next to a
"Red Tourism" site dedicated to China's revolutionary
martyrs meant some visitors were getting more than
"patriotic education," Xinhua news agency said
Thursday.
A court in southwestern Sichuan province this week
sentenced a hotel manager and four accomplices to jail
terms of eight months to 12 years for providing
prostitutes next to the Martyrs' Mausoleum.
Police and officials bribed to ignore the illegal
activities near the monument in the city of Luzhou had
previously been punished, Xinhua said on its English
Web site, www.chinaview.cn, without specifying.
"(The hotel manager) organized sexual services and
striptease performances," it said.
China has declared 2005 the year of Red Tourism,
promoting travels to sites where Communist heroes were
born, lived or fought.
The mausoleum stands as tribute to 64 people who died
for the revolutionary cause since 1911, when China's
last imperial dynasty, the Qing, was overthrown.
The Communist Party all but eradicated prostitution in
China after sweeping to power in 1949, yet it has
returned in a big way over the past two decades of
market reforms.
The crimes were exposed by state television early this
year, prompting an investigation and the arrests of
the five suspects.
Xinhua hailed the case as an example of "aggressive
investigative journalism in China."