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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tech / The Ladies / Teh Internets Chinese Men Look for Lesbians, Break Internet

Posted by Anthony Hecht on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 10:37 AM

What happens when a Chinese news agency invents a story about a secret city of 25,000 lesbians in northern Sweden? Two things.

1. Millions and millions of Chinese men swamp Sweden's ISPs, slowing the whole country's Internet service to a crawl.
2. Someone buys the domain chakopaul.com (Chako Paul was the made-up name of the made-up girl-on-girl metropolis), puts a crappy site up, and sells t-shirts for $30.

The original Chinese article, as dug up by Shanghaiist.

In Sweden, there is a place that is respectful of women’s love, but with a rule that men cannot enter. This is Chako Paul City. The town holds around 25,000 women, all from around Europe. If men transgress into the forbidden city, they will be beaten half to death. The citizens of Chako Paul are mostly engaged in the forest industry, because of such many of the women wear thick belts full of woodworking equipment. Some go into nearby cities to work and return to Chako Paul by night. Chako Paul’s tourism industry is increasingly prosperous, with hotels and restaurants everywhere that cater specifically to women around the world.

Thanks to Slog tipper Sarah

Comments (21) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I'm kind of upset this isn't a real city. Maybe Sweden should take a hint and set something up.

Posted by Enigma

on October 20, 2009 at 10:42 AM

sounds like Seattle

Posted by where the men are men and the women are too on October 20, 2009 at 10:50 AM

How are we supposed to know that these were men? I think you should change the title to 'Chinese research false news story, slow some Swedish servers' unless you happen to know that %100 of the traffic was men.

Posted by tempi on October 20, 2009 at 10:52 AM

I want that t-shirt!

Posted by eric (the other one) on October 20, 2009 at 10:58 AM

@3 - have you met men?

Posted by DavidG

on October 20, 2009 at 11:02 AM

Is this sort-of the female version of Provincetown?

Posted by Reverse Polarity on October 20, 2009 at 11:25 AM

The woodworking tool belts sound kind of sexy, but I don't know if that's worth getting beaten half to death.

What's with the Chinese-menu font on the t-shirt?

Posted by Free Lunch on October 20, 2009 at 11:32 AM

Couldn't they have come up with a more Swedish-sounding city name, like, I don't know, Dykebörg?

Posted by rob!

on October 20, 2009 at 11:33 AM

@6, there's a real Swedish town called Fagersta. It's in Västmanland County.

Posted by rob!

on October 20, 2009 at 11:40 AM

25.000 women all on the same menstrual cycle.

Like any man would want to come close.

Posted by I Got Nuthin' on October 20, 2009 at 11:44 AM

Yeah, "Chako Paul City" pretty much fits the nomenclature of other Swedish cities. They don't even seem to be trying.

Posted by Dougsf on October 20, 2009 at 12:14 PM

Oops, #8 beat me to it.

Posted by Dougsf on October 20, 2009 at 12:15 PM

Good thing they don't know about Seattle.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on October 20, 2009 at 12:19 PM

@11, I don't think most people in China know what Swedish sounds like, so it doesn't really matter.

Posted by Andy on October 20, 2009 at 12:27 PM

It reminds me of the time when a chinese news agency thought an Onion article was real.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/278…

Posted by The Amazing Jim

on October 20, 2009 at 12:29 PM

SHMERGEN! BORK BORK BORK.

Posted by wisepunk on October 20, 2009 at 1:06 PM

@10 wins. lmao.

Posted by Renton Mike on October 20, 2009 at 1:11 PM

true, @17.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on October 20, 2009 at 1:45 PM

Actually, I think I read about something similar to this, but the town is in the Ukraine. It was an article about warrior women that boingboing linked to.

Posted by scojomojo on October 20, 2009 at 1:59 PM