Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
RED LIGHT
DISTRICT
WALK
Amsterdam's oldest neighborhood has hosted the world's oldest
profession since 1200. The Red Light District lies between Damrak
and Nieuwmarkt. Amsterdammers call it De Wallen, or “The
Walls,” after the old city walls that once stood here. On your walk,
you'll see history, sleaze, and cheese—chickens in Chinatown
windows, drunks in doorways, cruising packs of foreign twenty-
somethings, cannabis in windows, and sex for sale.
The sex trade runs the gamut from sex shops selling porn and
accessories to blue video arcades, from glitzy nightclub sex shows
featuring strippers and sex acts to the real deal—prostitutes in bras,
thongs, and high heels, standing in window displays, offering their
bodies. Amsterdam keeps several thousand prostitutes employed—
and it's all legal.
Amsterdam's current city government is trying to rein in the
sex trade by limiting it to De Wallen. It's also hoping to splice other
commerce into a district that for centuries has had variations on
basically only one product. As many as half of the sex businesses
may close over the next few years—not because of prudishness, but
to limit the encroachment of organized crime. A major Red Light
District landlord was essentially given the option either to lease
many of his booths to the city or be zoned out of business. The city
picked up the leases, and windows that once showcased “girls for
rent” now showcase mannequins wearing the latest fashions—lit by
lights that aren't red.
Not for Everyone:
The Red Light District has something
offensive for everyone. Whether it's in-your-face images of
graphic sex, exploited immigrant women, whips and chains,
passed-out drug addicts, the pungent smells of pot smoke and
urine, or just the shameless commercialism of it all, it's not
everyone's cup of tea. While I encourage people to expand their
