Jutting lured two young women to his luxury Hong Kong apartment and raped, tortured and murdered them in a cocaine-fuelled orgy of violence and depravity that shocked the world. Credit: Reuters

Rurik Jutting is serving a life sentence for the brutal murders of two women in 2014

HONG Kong has always been a gateway city — for trading in the Orient and exploring the Pacific and beyond.

But these days the former British colony provides another kind of trip for the thousands of Western expats who call it home.

The cramped island metropolis, with a population of 7.5 million people, is awash with drugs, prostitution and dirty money, placing it among the vice capitals of the world, The Sun reports.

“It’s easier to get a hold of drugs than some groceries,” one young businessman told the publication.

The culture shock for youngsters landing in the tower-filled territory can be overwhelming.

Despite many being well-to-do middle-class graduates moving out for big money in the big city, it doesn’t take long for some to get swept up in the grimy hedonism.

And for a tiny minority, the culture of copious hard drugs, booze and sex on-tap can contribute to mental breakdowns, extreme violence and even murder.

An expat said: “Hong Kong is just like an adult Disneyland — there are no laws here.”

A former tiny fishing village, British colonialists set up in Hong Kong in the 19th century and won control of the island after a three-year war with China in 1842.

Appropriately, the conflict was over control of the drug trade, and it was dubbed the First Opium War.

For the next 150 years traders took advantage of the vast natural resources on offer on Hong Kong’s doorstep and commerce between the British Empire and the Far East boomed.

It quickly turned Hong Kong from a remote merchant outpost into a banking and trading mecca.

And with big money came a salacious underside — a hidden world where the suited-and-booted’s most extreme fantasies were catered for, at a price.

Hong Kong has never shied away from this seedy seam of its subculture, even 20 years after it was handed back to China as an autonomous territory.

The city was arguably built on drugs and drugs today still fuel much of its social scene, especially for the small but flush British expat population.

Alan, not his real name, is 26 and works in finance.

He spends his day meeting with high-flying lawyers, investment bankers and senior managers — often wining and dining clients over lavish dinners.

But once business is over, pleasure always follows, especially if he is hoping to impress important new acquaintances.

“Prostitution is more obvious here than in the UK. There are several major red light districts,” he said.

“Wan Chai district has freelance girls working in the bars. They are often from Philippines and Indonesia, sometimes domestic helpers looking to make extra money because their salaries are low.

“There are also rip-off ‘girlie bars ‘or ‘curtain bars’ that charge upwards of $200 ($A33) for a drink and as much as $1500-2000 ($A245-$A327) for a night with a girl.

“I once saw a 60-plus year old British guy I had recently had a civilised lunch with a few weeks prior, leaving one of these curtain bars with a big grin on his face.”

Joe, 26 and from London, regularly flies out to Hong Kong on business, and has school pals there who help to make sure he has a good time from the moment he lands after the 9656km journey.

He told The Sun: “It’s easier to get hold of drugs than some groceries.

“I spent a few days in the Wan Chai district for work recently and couldn’t believe the scenes.

“There’s loads of bars open until all hours — it feels like walking along The Strip in some Mediterranean party island.

“They are packed with prostitutes too and if you’re not careful you might mistake their interest for genuine affection.

“I was in one of the bars late one night when it got raided by the police.

“About 20 cops in uniform stormed in and went looking around the toilets and the other nooks and crannies, presumably for drugs.

“It sort of seemed like a show, though. I bet you’d probably be able to bribe your way out if you got caught.

“Maybe they weren’t there to arrest anyone and just felt they were missing out on the action.”

But while some might say that Hong Kong’s seedy underbelly is a mostly harmless side-effect of its economic success, one shocking case showed how a life of never-ending excess could lead to the most chilling brutality.

In November last year, depraved British banker Rurik Jutting, 32, was caged for life in Hong Kong after slaying two sex workers at his plush 31st floor apartment.

Jutting is now appealing his conviction in the hope of serving his sentence in the UK.

Jutting, from leafy Cobham in Surrey, subjected first victim Sumarti Ningsih, 23, to a terrifying 72-hour booze and cocaine-fuelled torture ordeal.

He beat her with his fists, a belt and used pliers and clamps, before making her lick the toilet bowl and slitting her throat.

The warped Cambridge University graduate then devised an even more brutal torture for his next victim using a blow torch, sandpaper and sex toys.

But before he could carry out his vile plan, he killed Seneng Mujiasih, 26, the same way he killed Sumarti after she spotted a gag made from a condom and two knives hidden under a sofa.

In court Jutting said he was addicted to booze and cocaine and enjoyed sadistic sex — all of which were readily available on the neon streets of Hong Kong.

Vice Magazine recently wrote an eye-opening expose on the city amid the murder probe.

Young expats told how easy it was to jump on the boozy, drugged-up bandwagon, where no night was complete without a group sex party.

Public schoolboy Xander, 25, said: “I get offered drugs more than once a day. You go out and everyone’s on it.”

That is despite the price. On average a gram of cocaine costs around £100 ($A173), the magazine said.

“Before I came to Asia, I would never have dreamt of it, I would never have slept with a prostitute back home,” Xander told the publication.

But such is the desensitisation to sex that a seemingly quiet work meeting with a middle-aged married client soon descended into debauchery.

Settling down for a drink in the notorious Wan Chai district, Xander’s American guest began telling him “about his family and how he was planning on getting his wife and his kids and dog to fly over”.

But the next minute “he was half naked and [receiving oral sex] from these strippers, right in front of me. So I got one, too. I put it on his tab.”

Xander added: “Hong Kong is just like an adult Disneyland — there are no laws here.”

Russell, another young financial analyst, said he had paid for sex “over 50 times” using seedy sex sites where customers rate prostitutes and give them TripAdvisor-style reviews.

On his very first night in the city, the 29-year-old met a school friend for a drink and they quickly logged on to one website.

“Twenty minutes later, we were all [receiving oral sex] in the same room. Though we were mostly too coked out to get hard,” he told Vice Magazine.

There are other few places where a bright-eyed expat can dive into a booze-fuelled sex and drug binge within hours of touching down.

The vice city of the Orient, Hong Kong is a hedonist’s dream — and nightmare.

The Hong Kong Tourism Board declined to provide a comment for this article.

This article originally appeared in The Sun and was republished with permission.