Ah Hung, 28, was born in a Guangdong village and later farmed chickens and pigs. Today, the mother of nine- and 10-year-old sons works as a prostitute in Temple Street, Jordan. She wears a pink top, blue jeans and flat-heeled shoes festooned with flowers. She appears shy and covers her nose and mouth whenever she laughs. 'I sleep mostly with old men, for $200,' she says. Ah Hung quit school at 15 and went to work in a garment factory. At 17, she met her husband, and, having combined their savings, she opened a clothing shop in Guangzhou. She was soon earning as much as $5,000 a month. 'Later, my husband started to gamble and dated other girls,' she says. 'He asked me for money. We fought every day. I couldn't take care of the business. The economy wasn't good. I started to make losses.' In 1999, she divorced her husband, and in 2002 was forced to close the shop. She then took a position as a waitress for $500 a month, which was barely enough to feed her family. One day, a former classmate told her she could earn $2,000 a day in Hong Kong. In March, she applied for a one-month visitor's permit. 'When I left home, I just told my parents I was going to work. They had no idea I'd come to Hong Kong,' she says. She rented a small room in Jordan, furnished with just a bed, TV and wardrobe for $100 a day and began to walk the streets. 'I felt like I was dreaming,' she says. 'I was very scared.' She says men came up to her, but she was so frightened that she didn't dare talk to them. 'My first customer helped me take off my clothes,' Ah Hung says. 'Afterwards, I cried and felt dirty. I asked, 'Why do I have to do this?' I comforted myself by saying, 'It's for my children. If I don't do this, they will have no food and no future.''
