New Luxury Boutique Hotel to Open in Shanghai in 2008 "The Place Hotel & Spa ... will be an exciting new addition to the city?s luxury boutique hotel scene when it opens early next year. The hotel will be ... part of the Park Place development which is set to be a new business landmark on Nanjing Lu West."

Pornography charges against a 36 year old woman arrested three years ago after taking off her clothes and chatting with other Internet users via webcam have been dropped in Beijing's Shijinshan district after prosecutors found that nude chat rooms were not defined in China's pornography laws. This case is understood to be the first of its kind in Beijing.

The news comes amidst the announcement of a new six-month campaign to crack down on online pornography which the Chinese government says has "perverted China's young minds".

In the largest and most controversial porn-related case to date, Chen Hui, the operator of what was said to be the largest porn site in China, received a life sentence in November 2006. Prosecutors said Chen's operation hosted more than 600,000 registered users, who were able to access more than 9 million pornographic images.

Just a few days ago, Baidu's Japanese website , which has links to pornography and critics of the Chinese government, has been blocked in its home market .

The very salacious Asian Sex Gazette tells us that despite a coordinated effort by 10 government agencies to remove porn from the internet (we wish them luck!), "cyber-sex remains widely available to anyone who wants to search hard enough".

With news of Li's acquittal, online nudists can now breathe a collective sigh of relief. To celebrate the momentous occassion, Shanghaiist intends to go online in search of a cyber-romp tonight. But damn, we first need to get ourselves a web-cam!

I wonder if this is a youth issue, or a sex issue. It will be interesting to see if hostess KTV ('perverting the minds of China's businessmen') and pinklight barbershops ('perverting the minds of China's taxi drivers') will eventually receive a similar treatment...

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