MORE than 60 senior executives of Shenzhen-based P2P lending companies joined a tour around a prison in Pingshan New Area on Sept. 13, under the request of the Shenzhen Internet Finance Association, the Time-Weekly reported.

    The campaign was launched by the association Aug. 26 when they notified over 170 P2P companies in Shenzhen to send senior executives on the tour.

    Over 60 executives, with one third of them female practitioners, ended up joining the tour.

    Inside the high walls of the prison, the financial elites were told by the prison police to march in lines before entering the buildings. Though the police were giving orders with a mild attitude, Li Sun, CEO of a local P2P company, still felt the obvious seriousness.

    After receiving and obeying each order given by the police, the executives went through seven iron doors to enter the cell area. “No freedom, no respect and the prisoners even need consent to use the toilet,” said Li.

    A group of over 20 prisoners met the visitors on the first floor of the prison building and all of them squatted while the executives walked past them. They did not stand up until the visitors were well past. It is a rule in the prison that the prisoners need to squat down whenever they meet visitors.

    There are six bunks, two bathrooms, but no window in each cell. Only a small electronic fan was equipped. Li said that the rooms were extremely clean and contained just basic daily supplies.

    The executives were also told that 80 percent of the prisoners did not have a high school level education and most of them were in jail for violent behavior.

    The last section of the tour was a 15-minute video clip where a former director of a local hospital in Shenzhen narrated his story of committing corruption.

    “The experience of going inside the prison is so different from looking at it from the outside because I can actually feel the cruelty behind the bars,” said Wang Cheng, a senior finance executive.

    Police from the prison told the visitors not to look back when they exit the gates of the prison. “Do not look back when you go out and we don’t wish to see you again,” said the police.

    Organizing tours around prisons has been a conventional way for the supervising government agencies of traditional financial industries to educate financial practitioners, but it is new to the Internet finance industry.

    Shenzhen was the second city to organize such a tour aimed at Internet financiers after the Shanghai Internet Finance Association organized a tour around a prison for 50 senior executives at P2P companies in Shanghai.

    (Zhang Qian)