Authorities in this provincial capital recently ended their six-year freeze on new entertainment facilities, and people like Macao-based Luk Boahwa are ready to get down to business.

Luk has been waiting for years to open a sauna business, but has been held up by the ban.

Guangdong provincial authorities stopped accepting new applications for entertainment and relaxation facilities like karaoke bars, saunas and video bars in 2000 under a social order campaign aimed at rooting out prostitution, gambling and the drug trade.

"I tried buying a permit from existing sauna operators in Guangzhou, but to no avail. The price was just too high," Luk told China Daily.

"I'm so happy, just so happy with the provincial authorities' decision to lift the ban."

However, the ban did serve its purpose, reducing vice by an estimated 30 percent.

"The social order has improved significantly at entertainment facilities," said Hu Yanni, an official with Guangdong provincial industrial and commercial administration. "It is now proper to resume permitting more such facilities.

"For one thing, people in the province demand more entertainment and relaxation facilities, for another, many Hong Kong and Macao businesspeople have been yearning for the opportunity to invest in such facilities under the CEPA (closer economic partnership arrangement), which encourages them to do so," she said.

"Many people have even speculated with the permits they have obtained over the past six years, which has had an undesirable effect on the market," Hu said.

The provincial industrial and commercial administration will not set any limits on the number of new entertainment and relaxation facilities, as long as the applicants get the go-ahead from other government departments including those responsible for areas like culture, sanitation and hygiene, fire protection and environment protection beforehand, she said.

She added that no new cyber cafes would be allowed to open.

Liu Shijun, a private sector power equipment businessman in Guangzhou, welcomed the change.

"When more entertaining facilities, and hence more choices, are available, the competition will heat up. The operators will naturally have to improve services and probably lower prices," Liu said. "That will undoubtedly benefit consumers."

Using Guangdong Province as a model, the State Industrial and Commercial Administration issued a notice in 2004 to halt the opening of new entertainment and relaxation facilities across the country.

(China Daily April 13, 2007)