@allterrainoverlanders writes:
"Boten itself was quite shocking - we heard how it was a sin city but the extent and openness of the vice was incredible. For example at restaurant we dined at, the hardware shop we bought screws at, and the bike workshop were all adjacent to the fluorescent-lit storefronts with women waiting to be hired. Sadly, we noticed ladies looking no more than 16 prowling the streets too."
In August 2022 @aiy_anoulack showed theese pictures of Boten Jingland Hotel:
Sex workers which are no more than 16? The german newspaper taz.de reports the same:
* 16-year-old Laotian Noy has barely arrived in Boten on the border with China when her first day of work begins in the cool evening hours. Five Chinese men surround the girl. Noy, whose real name is different, wears braces and laughs shyly. I've never worked in this job before," she says, while her pimp, his wife, and one of the five Chinese men negotiate a price. "I'm a little nervous." Then everything happens very quickly, and she disappears into the darkness with her first customer—three or four times her age. *
Taz.de continues:
* In the evenings, sex workers from Laos and clients from China populate the streets. Brothels are everywhere, with young girls sitting outside. Their laughter and the jeers of drunken Chinese mingles with loud music. Stories of sexually transmitted diseases and drugs circulate behind closed doors. In the former market area where Noy has been working since today, fights sometimes break out.*
Night live scene in Boten:
Screnshot from YoutubeThis Chinese Youtuber is talking about openness in Boten and he points to the night and the Lao and Vietnamese women:
This blogger shows Boten as a "mans paradise":
"Child sex trafficking ring from Việt Nam to Laos busted", vietnamnews.vn reported on December 12, 2024. Authorities have arrested and charged two individuals from northern Việt Nam for trafficking minors under the age of 16. In March 2024 two young women were recruted by promising lucrative opportunities. They were brought to Boten Special Economic Zone in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. The victims were coerced into prostitution to repay fabricated debts of VNĐ68 million (US$2,700). Investigations revealed that several women had been trafficked to Laos to exploit them for prostitution, primarily targeting Chinese clients in Boten. The Ministry of Public Security and the Lao Police conducted joint operations to arrest suspects and rescue victims in Boten, targeting properties managed by both Vietnamese and Chinese nationals.
In June 2024 we see Boten during the night:
In January 2024 this was the oulook from Jingland Hotel in Boten:
On https://en.chinaseasia.net/ we learn:
*In 2011, the Lao government awarded a concession to Yunnan Haicheng, transforming the image of the area from a crime-ridden and violent border casino area into a border town full of opportunities and safe living. Yunnan Haicheng’s project focuses on developing the city into a modern city suitable for residents, with many facilities, including shopping malls, hospitals, plans to establish industrial estates, and cultural tourism attractions that connect with nature. (...) Many areas that looked empty are now filled with Chinese people who want to do business. (...) They come from many cities and provinces in China. (...) Boten is still lively at night, especially the 'massage' shops, which are lit with purple and pink lights. At the same time, the number of workers working on construction projects has also increased. The construction buildings along the way are not abandoned, but there are always workers. Even the number of young girls working in restaurants has clearly increased.*
See this Youtube-Video by Andy Chan from August 21, 2024:
Blogster Lara Dumortier writes in May 20, 2025:
*It doesn’t feel like Laos anymore. People greet you with ‘ni hao’ and ‘xiexie’, you pay with Chinese yuan and the streetscape is dominated by tall blocks of buildings — all empty for the time being. The whole thing gives Boten a spooky feeling. (...) In the last twenty minutes of my bus ride to Boten we passed hundreds of trucks with Chinese company names. They all seem to be involved in the megalomaniac construction project that is being made here.*
And she adds:
*Companies are allowed to remain 100% owned by Chinese shareholders, there are no import duties on goods coming from the Boten Special Economic Zone, and, most interestingly, products can be labelled as ‘Made in Laos’ according to WTO (World Trade Organisation) guidelines. This means that they are exempt from import duties in many countries, because Laos is classified as a “least developed country”. It becomes clear to me why this is so attractive to China.*
But there are more illegal activities in Boten, als rfa.org writes on February 28, 2025:
*A Lao surrogate for Chinese parents gives rare insight into an illegal industry that continues to thrive. Last year, an acquaintance approached Mali* with a proposition. A wealthy Chinese couple unable to conceive was looking for a surrogate from Laos. The going rate, about $6,000 to $7,000 plus daily spending money, represented a significant sum in a country where the monthly minimum wage is $82. “My friend used to be a surrogate mother, so she asked me if I wanted to be. I wanted to earn money,” Mali told RFA in an interview. “I wanted the money to build my own house.” (...) At a clinic in Boten, which sits just across the border from China’s Yunnan province, a team of Chinese doctors deemed Mali fit for surrogacy and implanted her with a fertilized embryo. She was then moved to what she described as a “luxury hotel.”
There, alongside women from Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, Mali began her nine-month wait. (...) The team that handled Mali’s in vitro fertilization was made up of Chinese doctors and nurses, with a Lao interpreter providing support and helping arrange paperwork. Two months after the successful implantation of the embryo, Mali began traveling to China each month for checkups. (...) What she knew about the baby was what she saw in the briefest of moments before he was taken away: He was a boy, and he looked Chinese.
In November 2021 we saw this skyline of Boten:
January 2022:
Read also:
“Small Is Beautiful”: Lessons from Laos for the Study of Chinese Overseas
Resarch by Danielle Tan, published by Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 2/2012