On December 24th, actor Wang Xing, as usual, opened a group message in his WeChat group.
The message was about a short drama project, with the shooting location in Bangkok. Wang Xing contacted Yan Shiliu, who claimed to be the actor coordinator, and was soon informed that he had passed the audition.
Initially, Wang Xing was skeptical about the shooting location and specifically checked the producer mentioned in the group message to confirm the information was true. Eventually, he chose to believe it. For grassroots actors like Wang Xing, even if it was a risk, he did not want to miss a chance to become famous.
Three days later, on the night of January 3rd, Wang Xing took a red-eye flight arranged by the other party, flying from Shanghai Pudong to Bangkok, Thailand.
Upon arriving in Bangkok, it was already 3 a.m. on January 3rd. Seven hours later, he lost contact with his girlfriend Jiajia back in China.
On the evening of the 5th, Jiajia posted a call for help on Weibo. After being shared by several celebrity friends, public opinion began to ferment. By noon on the 7th, the Thai police announced that they had found Wang Xing.
From disappearance to rescue, it only took four days. It was not so much the capability of the Thai police, but rather, it proved that behind this incident, there was a set of unspoken rules operating smoothly and steadily.
One
Uncle Bao said he carefully reviewed the investigation process of the Thai police, which could be described as smooth sailing.
The Thai police retrieved airport surveillance footage, capturing the scene of Wang Xing entering the country alone at security, and then interrogated the driver who picked up Wang Xing from the airport.
The driver stated that someone had booked the ride on Grab, paying 5000 Thai Baht, and specified the destination as the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
It is worth noting that from Bangkok airport to Mae Sot, a 510-kilometer journey, it takes about 7 hours by car. The route includes 380 kilometers of highway, and a rough, desolate mountain road of 80 kilometers.
Wang Xing did not realize the danger of the journey. He even posted on his social circle: "2025 starts with a bang."
Wang Xing was dropped off at a Makro shopping mall in Mae Sot, and then the Karen border guard in Myanmar picked him up in a gray Toyota pickup truck, taking him to the other side of the Moei River: the town of Myawaddy, Myanmar.
Then, he entered the Apollo Park in Myawaddy. The company that received Wang Xing paid a fee of 2000 Thai Baht.
The border between Myawaddy, Myanmar, and Mae Sot, Thailand, is a vast expanse of barren grassland. The border line follows the Moei River, at its narrowest just over ten meters wide. Although there are barbed wire fences along the riverbank, they are less than one meter high, virtually ineffective.
Wang Xing was soon released from the park, and on the afternoon of the 7th, the Thai police picked up Wang Xing at the border checkpoint and transported him to Bangkok with a police aircraft. They defined this incident as a human trafficking case.
The deceiver Yan Shiliu's real identity also surfaced. His real name is Yan Wenlei, from Lianyungang, Jiangsu. He initially worked as a group leader in Wuxi Film City, later moving to Hengdian, where he worked in photography, sound recording, and directing.
Yan Wenlei also has a film company in China named Yan's Tianyi, and his experience in the entertainment industry became his cover for implementing deception.
Two
The Apollo Park where Wang Xing entered is located in the northern part of Myawaddy, in a valley called Shuigou Valley.
Shuigou Valley is now the world's largest scam park. It features bustling casinos, hotels, KTVs, and nightclubs, providing entertainment and joy for the executives of scam enterprises and visiting gamblers.
Beyond the hustle and bustle, there is a scam work area swallowed by the night, where the buildings are low and the surrounding walls have no windows. Even if employees work overnight indoors, the outside world cannot see them.
Eight years ago, Shuigou Valley, like most rural areas in Myanmar, lacked electricity and roads, with only corn and rubber fields.
At the end of 2016, a company from Hong Kong—Asia-Pacific International Holdings Group—approached the military leader in charge of Shuigou Valley, Sochi, with an investment plan worth 5 million USD: Asia City.
They went together to the capital of Kayin State, Hpa-an, to meet the top official. However, the 5 million USD investment far exceeded the approval authority of provincial officials. Only the Myanmar Investment Commission could handle it according to procedure.
Later, Hong Kong media found the registered location of Asia-Pacific International, which turned out to be just a warehouse.
Asia-Pacific International soon established a new company in Myanmar—Asia-Pacific Myanmar Holdings Group. According to the registration information at the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce, Asia-Pacific Myanmar is a joint venture, the major shareholder being a Chinese national who had just obtained Cambodian citizenship: TANG KRIANG KAI.
The citizenship of Tang Kriang Kai was granted by the Cambodian royal family. In Cambodia, a donation of over 250,000 USD to the government can be exchanged for citizenship.
He owns 67% of Asia-Pacific Myanmar; another 20% of the shares belong to the border guard commander.
Asia-Pacific Myanmar leased land from the local government for 70 years, claiming it was an economic special zone. The investment plan also evolved from 5 million USD to a massive smart city plan—covering 18,000 acres with a total investment of 15 billion USD, including an airport, luxury homes, luxurious hotels, casinos, and industrial zones, aiming to become Myanmar's tech hub within 5-10 years.
Three
Before becoming synonymous with gambling and scamming, Shuigou Valley was imbued with high hopes, heavily tied to the dramatic lives of its pioneers.
The aforementioned Cambodian businessman TANG KRIANG KAI is actually a middle-aged man with a strong Hunan accent from Shaoyang, real name: She Zhijiang, also known as She Lun Kai.
A friend doing business in Myanmar was once an investor She Zhijiang tried to woo. He has visited She Zhijiang's large villa in Yangon. She Lun Kai is wealthy and generous, with Moutai being standard at banquets, and he even hired several Chinese chefs.
Before the Shuigou Valley project, She Zhijiang's main business was operating a private lottery platform in the Philippines, enticing young people to join gambling.
In 2014, the Yantai Economic Development Zone Court in Shandong disclosed a verdict: She Zhijiang was convicted of illegal business operations, thus becoming a fugitive.
While on the run in the Philippines, She Zhijiang also partnered with local Chinese to register a company called Chong Hua, organizing over 150 foreign nationals to participate in online gambling.
The Myanmar Shuigou Valley project became a turning point for She Zhijiang. He adopted the name She Lun Kai and began to enter high society.
In September 2017, the China Overseas Chinese Businessmen Association held a World Chinese Businessmen Conference in Yangon, Myanmar. The key purpose of this conference was to introduce the Asia-Pacific Shuigou Valley project.
The signing ceremony between She Zhijiang and his Myanmar partners became the most attention-grabbing part of the conference.
With the president of the China Overseas Chinese Businessmen Association in attendance, along with authoritative media coverage, it became a strong endorsement for the Shuigou Valley project.
On the official website of Asia-Pacific International, another key figure was recorded, a Malaysian Chinese from Quanzhou, Fujian: Zhong Baojia.
Zhong Baojia's many identities are related to overseas Chinese businessmen. It was after partnering with Zhong Baojia in Asia-Pacific International that She Zhijiang began to frequently appear at various overseas Chinese business events. Later, She Zhijiang even became the vice president of the China Overseas Chinese Businessmen Association and became a cover figure for the Overseas Chinese Businessmen magazine.
In this profile interview, She Zhijiang beautified his years of gambling involvement as game development. He said that his initial trip to the Philippines was also a chance encounter through online chatting.
He learned that a Fujian boss had made a fortune there through game development. With his boldness and generosity, he quickly established a foothold locally.
In She Zhijiang's description, the selection of the Shuigou Valley site was introduced to him by an old Chinese in the Philippines as a way to repay a favor.
All these mysterious experiences collapsed with a single statement. In August 2020, the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar stated that it supported Myanmar's handling of Asia City.
A year later, Interpol issued a red notice for She Zhijiang, with the charge of suspected illegal operation of a casino.
In 2022, at a private banquet in a Japanese restaurant in the suburbs of Thailand, She Zhijiang, who was invited, was arrested by the Thai police.
Four
In September 2017, Asia-Pacific signed an 18 billion total contracting agreement with a company in Yangon. Due to a lack of funds, Asia-Pacific handed over the first phase of construction to another company.
Thousands of Chinese workers entered Shuigou Valley from Thailand, taking over four floors of the De Yue Ju Xin Hotel.
Next to the construction site of Shuigou Valley, fast food restaurants and supermarkets serving Chinese workers sprouted up. The construction site was filled with bulldozers and concrete mixers from Sany Heavy Industry and XCMG. Building materials and electricity were provided by Thailand.
These Chinese workers could not have imagined that what they were building would become the world's largest scam park in the future.
A few months after the project started, the Shuigou Valley project was finally approved by the Myanmar Investment Commission. The approved plan was not for 15 billion or 5 million USD, but for 22.5 million USD, including only 59 detached villas.
Soon, the Shuigou Valley project was reported by local villagers. They had not received reasonable land compensation nor job opportunities.
More importantly, the villagers began to realize that the so-called high-tech city was just a facade: what kind of technology needs to be done in such a godforsaken place?
The core industry that Asia-Pacific planned to place in Shuigou Valley was online gambling. At that time, gambling was still illegal in Myanmar.
Under tremendous public pressure, the Myanmar government announced the suspension of the Shuigou Valley project. However, in reality, the construction did not stop, and thousands of workers did not leave.
At the end of 2019, in the villa area south of the approved site, over a hundred acres of illegal construction sprang up, and a new city was born.
The first to move in was a company called Tianxia. The list of enterprises in the same batch mostly had names like XX Entertainment, XX Jin Technology, XX Entertainment Technology, etc.
To attract investment, Asia-Pacific also specifically registered a company in Beijing. Ma Dongli was the legal representative. Their main job was to promote Asia City and attract investment through WeChat public accounts and other means.
This new city was filled with huge promotional posters, hanging on billboards along the roads. Slogans in Chinese were hung at street corners: "Build a harmonious city together, resolutely prevent human trafficking."
This city also had its own unique currency.
Initially, to highlight the tech city, Asia-Pacific Myanmar introduced a cryptocurrency APP from Singapore called fincy, intended for all transactions, gambling, and rewards payments.
Now, park members more commonly use USDT issued by Tether, a cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for US dollars at par value.
Five
After She Zhijiang developed Myawaddy with Asia-Pacific, more capital continued to flow in. Most of them were withdrawing from Sihanoukville, Cambodia, after the gambling ban was issued there, prompting the gradual withdrawal of various capitals.
The fall of Sihanoukville facilitated the rise of Myawaddy.
In 2020, a Macau national named Yin Guoju, under the name of Dongmei Group, developed an industrial park called Saixi Port in Myawaddy, meaning to surpass Sihanoukville.
Almost simultaneously, a Thai Chinese named Yu Jianjun, under the name of Huan Asia International Group, jointly developed Taichang Park in the southern part of Myawaddy with local armed forces.
After the investments in various parks were completed, a batch of gambling enterprises began to move in. To maximize profits, this time they simply retained the cash cow businesses: online gambling and telephone scams.
A friend from Myanmar said that the parks in Shuigou Valley are completely Chinese-style: everyone who enters thinks they are in China.
Many people like Wang Xing were lured there under false pretenses. The Thai police's characterization is very accurate; this is no longer just telecommunications fraud, but human trafficking.
However, Myawaddy is different from what outsiders imagine. It has several layers of sentries on the outside, but inside, it actually does not rely on violent management. Especially in the earliest developed Shuigou Valley, most park management is even quite "regular"; most parks nominally allow free entry and exit and do not encourage beating or kidnapping, as there is no need.
Uncle Bao said that they mainly rely on money to retain people.
Fraud here is a complete, segmented industry chain, with specialized pig-butchering scams, targeting housewives, focusing on the European and American markets... Fraudsters closely follow social hotspots, cater to personal preferences, and tailor scam scripts for people of all ages, professional backgrounds, and educational levels.
Many Chinese were initially deceived into coming, but after systematic brainwashing or actually making money, they voluntarily stayed.
Chinese in Myanmar even regard Myawaddy as a legitimate industrial park. A friend said that seven or eight out of ten young Chinese in Myanmar have worked in Myawaddy.
For local Myanmar people, the park is even a paradise: no internal strife, no power outages, a stable environment, internet access, and relative freedom. An annual income of 100,000 RMB is not a dream, and the slightly smart and capable can earn two to three hundred thousand a year.
The dormitories in Shuigou Valley are very similar to university dormitories, with beds above and desks below, and even mattresses; employees are even allowed to use mobile phones, and in most cases, personal freedom is not restricted.
In recent years, some Chinese youths have also actively sought to work here. Entire villages from Fujian and Hunan have come here to "work."
Six
A few months ago, a friend who is a businessman in Myanmar helped rescue a girl from Jiangxi.
The girl, a graduate in English and a piano teacher, heard from a friend that there was a mineral cooperation project here and came. Like Wang Xing, she was controlled upon arrival.
She was sent to the new Taichang Park in Myawaddy, a relatively remote park, where the "boss" was Taiwanese. The girl's supervisor thought she had potential and wanted to train her in business.
It was not until the girl contacted her family via email and reported the situation here that she was beaten for the first time—in most parks in Myawaddy, people with potential are generally not beaten.
The girl's family contacted the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy, but to no avail. The embassy did not have law enforcement authority, and the Myanmar government could not manage Myawaddy.
Helplessly, they sought a middleman and began the process of paying a ransom for her release. The general market rate for ransom in the park is 1.2 million Thai Baht, which involves tipping people in the park, armed organizations, and middlemen specifically engaged in rescue work.
The initial payment of 200,000 was quickly transferred. The middleman exchanged the RMB for Thai Baht, then into Myanmar currency.
However, the girl's supervisor was unwilling to accept the ransom; they felt she was worth training. The ransom was exchanged back into RMB and returned to the family.
Helplessly, the middleman called the girl's family, asking her mother to pretend to be a heart patient on a sickbed and stage a drama of searching for relatives.
Generally, such dramas would trigger public opinion, and the park would intervene.
Wang Xing was rescued so quickly for the same reason. Netizens said that during the entire rescue process, the greatest credit goes to Wang Xing's girlfriend, who contacted celebrity friends to help share the information immediately, causing public opinion to explode instantly. Scam parks fear public opinion the most.
Most people who escape Myawaddy also use this method.
Later, the park indeed relented. The girl's family paid a ransom of over 340,000 RMB. The park also has a fixed process for releasing people; they provide a one-stop service: escorting the person all the way to Bangkok airport.
The reason for escorting people to Bangkok airport is that some young people who have been ransomed by their families are actually unwilling to leave Myawaddy.
Even some, after
