From the outside, the red-brick building in a suburb of Xiamen city looks nondescript. But this is the famous 'Red Mansion' of smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing , who built the house of sin to entertain government officials.
'Black cars with officials and young ladies used to come and go all night,' a neighbour said. Mr Lai fled to Canada in 1999 and is now fighting extradition back to the mainland. The Red Mansion briefly became a museum, where visitors could gape at the erotic art and massage tables.
Mr Lai bribed Xiamen vice-mayor Zhao Keming with a sauna and prostitute at the Red Mansion in return for concessions on a property project. He gave the Xiamen customs chief, Yang Qianxian, 10 million yuan to keep a mistress and later provided the couple with houses in Xiamen and Hong Kong.
'After finding a target in need of beautiful women, Lai would personally look for and deliver beautiful women to the official,' state media said in a report which riveted the nation.
The level of detail given in that account set the tone for subsequent media reporting about corruption and sex, although China has moved on to other scandals. A list now circulating anonymously on the internet, which has been posted on several official websites, gives sordid details of the 'World Record' mistress keepers.
The list describes the excesses of several government officials, including one who had a 16-year-old mistress and another who kept journals with samples of hair from his conquests.