#harbin hotel criticism

[leleamo]

Thanks to H.H, I'm thinking about finally getting my cartoon idea out of my head and onto paper, to show Vivi how to make a decent design! Hehehe, maybe I'll post some of the drawings at the end of the week, scenarios, characters, and maybe the logo

[shimmrgloom]

Okay! So this has been bothering me. Let’s break down what each song in Harbin Hotel is about and see if we can’t look at it from a big picture.

Happy Day in Hell— Charlie sings her ‘I want song’ and establishes her motivation and outlook as well as what hell is like.

Hell is Forever— Charlie pitches the Hotel to Adam, fails, and kick starts the main conflict. Adam has moved up the next extermination.

It Starts With Sorry— Charlie sings to Pentious about redemption, reinforcing the theme of the show and setting him up for a payoff later.

Stayed Gone— Vox and Alistor establish their rivalry.

Respectless— Velvette accuses Carmilla of being weak. Establishes tension between those in power and those on the come up.

Whatever It Takes— Vaggie and Carmilla sing about their dedication to their loved ones. Sets up the idea that demons can care about each other.

Poison— Angeldust sings about his addiction and abuse at the hands of Valentino. It’s heartbreaking. Also establishes the kinds of things that hold sinners back from redemption (self worth/delusion)

Loser Baby— Husk commiserates with Angel about their shared suffering and appeals to Angel to be more honest about the reality of his situation. Ships set sail.

Hell’s Greatest Dad— Alistor and Lucifer fight over who should be Charlie’s dad. It’s hilarious. Mizzie crashes the song as a bit of a meta joke.

More Than Anything— Lucifer and Charlie reconcile and sing a heartbreaking duet. If you didn’t feel something you’re dead inside.

Welcome to Heaven— Saint Peter welcomes Charlie and Vaggie to heaven. Where everyone is hot. Vital to understanding heaven but maybe a bit indulgent.

You Didn’t Know— the turning point of the show. Charlie presents her case to heaven and is interrogated by Adam and Lute. She manages to win over Emily and they stand in solidarity against heaven’s hypocrisy as represented by Sera. Charlie fails to stop the next Extermination.

Out For Love— Carmilla teaches Vaggie how to fight for love and beat angels. It’s rad. Picks up themes established by ‘whatever it takes.’

Ready for This— Charlie convinces the cannibals to help them fight the angels and accepts her role as leader of Hell. It’s very Les Mis.

More Than Anything (reprise)— Charlie and Vaggie sing about their gay love for each other and then kiss. It’s great.

Finale— Charlie memorializes Pentious and reflects on her failures and triumphs. It’s a big ensemble song but is mostly Lucifer and Charlie’s song with a little cut out for Alistor/Vox to tease coming S2 conflicts.

So? What can we learn about the structure of the show? Charlie is clearly the main character. She has almost double the singing parts of anyone else in the show. The next most important characters are Adam (our villain and stand in for the Patriarchy) and then Vaggie and Carmilla. Vox and Alistair are there to set up seeds for season 2 and Angel gets exactly one episode (two songs) to take the spotlight for a bottle episode.

I don’t see how you could say this show ISN’T female led. Even the male characters (with the exception of Angel and Husk) ALL are there to support Charlie. Lucifer is there to support her. Alistor is there to help her grow. Pentious is there to show that her plan can work. The only exception is Carmilla who is there to support Vaggie.

Criticize it for its relationship to people of color (all the bad guys are white! Yay? Sera may be a POC but boy it’s hard to tell). Criticize it for maybe not giving its characters room to breathe (it’s an 8 episode ensemble show, not a lot of room). Criticize it for its dated ‘edgy humor.’

But to say it doesn’t do its female characters justice? What show are you watching? Love to go into Charlie’s arc (which is honestly really solid) but this is too long lol

[sparkledlollipops]

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[its-to-the-death]

Glasses Swag Tournament Round 1

Now that preliminary rounds are over, we can begin! So ready your propaganda!

This is the bracket we're working with:

The winners of the two brackets will go head to head at the end.

Every round will last one week and Round 1 will begin tomorrow, Saturday May 13, at 12:00PM EST.

The pictures are a little small since we have a lot of contestants so all the matchups are also below the cut. They will link to the polls once they begin.

Tulip Olsen (Infinity Train) vs Rupert Giles (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Marvel) vs Crowley (Good Omens)

Gregor (Limbus Company) vs Megane Kakeru/William Glass (Inazuma Eleven)

Scott Summers (X-Men) vs Louis James Moriarty (Moriarty the Patriot)

Raine Whispers (The Owl House) vs Grell Sutcliff (Black Butler)

Valentino (Harbin Hotel) vs Morpheus (The Matrix)

Penny (Pokemon) vs Kyoya Ootori (Ouran High School Host Club)

Misty Quigley (Yellowjackets) vs Conan Edogawa (Detective Conan)

Ryan Aka (Infinity Train) vs Maes Hughes (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Shimura Shinpachi (Gintama) vs Velma Dinkley (Scooby Doo)

Alexandra Garcia (Kuroko no Basket) vs Spartan (Deltarune)

Chidi Anagonye (The Good Place) Lotte Jansson (Little Witch Academia)

Milo Thatch (Atlantis: The Lost Empire) vs 707/Seven/Luciel Choi/Saeyoung Choi (Mystic Messenger)

The Professor (Puppet History) vs Jade Harley (Homestuck)

Donquixote Doflamingo (One Piece) vs Linda Belcher (Bob's Burgers)

Tina Belcher (Bob's Burgers) vs Mirabel Madrigal (Encanto)

Saiki Kusuo (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K) vs Clark Kent (DC)

Sticky Washington (The Mysterious Benedict Society) vs Patton Sanders (Sanders Sides)

Willow Park (The Owl House) vs Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss)

Badyah Hassan (Dead End Paranormal Park) vs Arthur Read (Arthur)

Gary the Gadget Guy (Club Penguin) vs Ralsei (Deltarune)

Daniel Jackson (Stargate) vs Joker/Ren Amamiya (Persona 5)

Percy de Rolo (Critical Role) vs Hiyama Kiyoteru (Vocaloid)

Bayonetta (Bayonetta) vs Vash the Stampede (Trigun 1998)

Ghoul Yelps (Monster High) vs Evelyn Carnahan (The Mummy)

Anthy Himemiya (Revolutionary Girl Utena) vs Dib (Invader Zim)

Roz (Monsters Inc.) vs Ignatz Victor (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Simon (Alvin and the Chipmunks) vs The Corinthian (The Sandman)

Logan Sanders (Sanders Sides) vs Uryu Ishida (Bleach)

Gordon Freeman (Half-Life) vs Michael (The Good Place)

Nino Lahiffe (Miraculous Ladybug) vs Edna Mode (The Incredibles)

Alya Cesaire (Miraculous Ladybug) vs Vriska Serket (Homestuck)

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

A new hotel is sparking controversy with its central conceit: a polar bear enclosure visible from all of its 21 rooms.

The Polar Bear Hotel opened Friday in the city of Harbin, China, as Reuters reported. It is fully booked through a trial period, but has been widely criticized by animal welfare advocates.

"Polar bears belong in the Arctic, not in zoos or glass boxes in aquariums – and certainly not in hotels," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia senior vice president Jason Baker told Reuters. "Polar bears are active for up to 18 hours a day in nature, roaming home ranges that can span thousands of miles, where they enjoy a real life."

A video shared by the South China Morning Post shows two bears in a small enclosure with harsh lighting, artificial ice and small pools of water.

China has faced global criticism for animal rights' abuses, including the use of endangered species in traditional medicines and the treatment of animals in zoos and circuses.

[sachwlang]

Chinese 'polar bear hotel' opens to full bookings, criticism

Chinese ‘polar bear hotel’ opens to full bookings, criticism

(CNN) — A hotel that bills itself as the world’s first “polar bear hotel” has opened in China’s far northeastern Heilongjiang province, drawing both guests and criticism for its central feature: live polar bears. The Polar Bear Hotel, part of the Harbin Polarland theme park in Heilongjiang’s capital and largest city, Harbin, opened its doors on Friday with the promise of round-the-clock polar…

[tachtutor]

Chinese 'polar bear hotel' opens to full bookings, criticism

Chinese ‘polar bear hotel’ opens to full bookings, criticism

(CNN) — A hotel that bills itself as the world’s first “polar bear hotel” has opened in China’s far northeastern Heilongjiang province, drawing both guests and criticism for its central feature: live polar bears. The Polar Bear Hotel, part of the Harbin Polarland theme park in Heilongjiang’s capital and largest city, Harbin, opened its doors on Friday with the promise of round-the-clock polar…

[trendingph]

Chinese 'polar bear hotel' opens to full bookings, criticism Visitors look at polar bears at an enclosure inside a hotel at a newly-opened polarland-themed park in Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province March 12, 2021. cnsphoto via REUTER... https://trendingph.net/chinese-polar-bear-hotel-opens-to-full-bookings-criticism/?feed_id=151012&_unique_id=604cb38a2b597 #bear #bookings #chinese #criticism #full #hotel #opens #philippinenews #philippinesnews #polar #trendingph

[whileiamdying]

Li Zhensheng, Photographer of China’s Cultural Revolution, Dies at 79

With his camera and red arm band, he captured the dark side of Mao’s revolution at great personal risk. Many of the images were stashed under a floor, going undeveloped for years.

By Amy Qin

Published June 25, 2020 Updated June 26, 2020, 9:44 a.m. ET

Li Zhensheng in a risky self portrait taken during China’s Cultural Revolution on July 17, 1967, when people were expected to put party before self. His photographs offer a rare visual testament to that tumultuous period in Chinese history.Credit...Li Zhensheng/Contact Press Images

Li Zhensheng, a photographer who at great personal risk documented the dark side of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, producing powerful black-and-white images that remain a rare visual testament to the brutality of that tumultuous period, many of them not developed or seen for years, has died. He was 79.

His death was confirmed on Tuesday by Robert Pledge, a founder of Contact Press Images and editor of Mr. Li’s photo book “Red-Color News Soldier,” who said that Mr. Li had been hospitalized on Long Island. He lived in Queens. Further details, including the date of his death, were not released.

Mr. Li was a young photographer at a local newspaper in northeastern China when Mao started the Revolution in May 1966. Wearing a red arm band that said, “Red-Color News Soldier,” Mr. Li was given extraordinary access to official events.

A local peasant leads the crowd in chanting slogans during a “fight against the enemies” rally in Heilongjiang Province on May 12, 1965. Credit...Li Zhensheng/Contact Press Images

“I was excited like everyone else,” he recalled in a 2003 interviewwith The New York Times. “The happiness was real. We felt lucky to be living the moment.”

But his excitement quickly gave way to anxiety. What began as a political campaign aimed at consolidating power soon engulfed the entire country, unleashing decade-long turmoil that upended Chinese society. Factions of radical youths known as “Red Guards” roamed the country battling one another and perceived “class enemies.”

Countless historical sites and relics were destroyed in the name of stamping out China’s “feudal” and “bourgeois” culture. Mr. Li began to have doubts after witnessing Red Guards in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang ransacking churches and temples, burning scriptures and criticizing monks.

Eight criminals and counterrevolutionaries were forced to kneel on the outskirts of Harbin on April 5, 1968. In the moment before their execution, a guard tried to separate two condemned lovers, far left. Credit...Li Zhensheng/Contact Press Images

Three men are paraded through the streets of Harbin on Sept. 12, 1966, with their names and the crimes they are charged with (from left, black gang element, local despot, counterrevolutionary) displayed on placards. Credit...Li Zhensheng/Contact Press Images

“I realized that I had to document this tumultuous period,” he wrote. “I didn’t really know whether I was doing it for the sake of the revolution, for myself or for the future, but I knew I had to use a camera as a tool to document it.”

Mr. Li took not just the propaganda photos — the raised fists, the revolutionary fervor, the mass assemblies — that were required by his newspaper, but also less flattering ones. He amassed about 100,000 photos during that period, stashing many of the negatives under the parquet floorboards in his home in Harbin, the capital of China’s northernmost province, where they remained undeveloped for years.

His collection remains one of the most complete and nuanced visual chronicles of how the Cultural Revolution upended daily life far away from the capital, Beijing. Among the photos are numerous ones of “struggle sessions,” in which people were criticized, abused and made to stand for hours with their heads bowed before a sea of accusers.

A rebel group forced the leaders of a rival group to kneel and be criticized outside Harbin’s North Plaza Hotel on Jan. 17, 1967. The steps were the site of numerous “struggle sessions.” Credit...Li Zhensheng/Contact Press Images

At times Mr. Li participated in the criticisms, too, shouting slogans to get a crowd going so that he could take photos. During these sessions, many people were forced to wear placards around their necks detailing their supposed crimes: “big property owner,” “black gang element,” “counterrevolutionary revisionist element.” Some were sentenced to hard labor or death. Mr. Li documented the executions.

Though he had only one chance to photograph Mao, the “great helmsman” is omnipresent, seen in portraits, busts and badges. In one photo, people shouted praises to Mao as they swam in the Songhua River. In another, a newlywed couple decorated their bedroom with photos and quotations of the chairman. According to the official caption, the couple were later criticized for making love under Mao’s eyes, but they defended themselves by saying that they had always turned out the lights first.

Swimmers praised Mao while floating along the Songhua River. Mao figured into many of Mr. Li’s  photographs — not in person but in portraits, busts and badges.  Credit...Li Zhensheng/Contact Press Images

By the end of the Cultural Revolution, in 1976, tens of millions of people had been persecuted and up to 1.5 million had died according to some estimates. Many were driven to suicide.

“No other political movement in China’s recent history lasted as long, was as widespread in its impact, and as deep in its trauma as the Cultural Revolution,” Mr. Li said in a 2018 interview with The Times.

In 1988, China was in the midst of a brief period of openness when Mr. Li exhibited 20 of his previously hidden images for the first time in Beijing. His series, “Let the Past Speak to the Future,” won the top prize in the competition.

In the decades since, the Cultural Revolution has become an increasingly taboo topic in China. Officials had repeatedly blocked Mr. Li’s attempts to publish the photos, part of a broader effort by the ruling Communist Party to whitewash that turbulent chapter.

A young woman publicly attacked a fellow peasant, Zhang Diange, in 1965 of ”unreasonably” pressuring her father to repay a debt. Credit...Li Zhensheng/Contact Press Images

“Li Zhensheng gave a face, an image and a texture to the horrors of a period of incredible importance in modern Chinese history,” said Geremie R. Barmé, an Australian Sinologist. “He is part of a large body of men and women of conscience in China who have pushed to remember and reflect on a period of history that the authorities would rather distort or silence.”

In 2003, Mr. Li published a book of his photos called “Red-Color News Soldier.” Since then, the photos have been exhibited in more than 60 countries.

“I think we must try, through serious reflection, through contemplation, to relieve those whose souls were tortured,” he wrote in the book. “I want to show the world what really happened during the Cultural Revolution.”

Li Zhensheng was born to a poor family in the northeastern port city of Dalian on Sept. 22, 1940. His father, Li Yuanjian, was a former cook on a steamship. Mr. Li was 3 when his mother, Chen Shilan, died.

Not long afterward, the family moved back to their ancestral hometown in the eastern province of Shandong. Mr. Li grew up with his younger sister and elder half brother, who was killed in 1949 fighting in Mao’s revolutionary army.

Mr. Li’s interest in cinema and photography was sparked at a young age. To pay for movie tickets, he collected and sold empty aluminum toothpaste tubes. While in middle school, he traded a prized stamp collection for his first camera. Friends sometimes pooled their money to buy a roll of film so that Mr. Li could take their photos.

Li Zhensheng at a “fight against enemies” mass rally in Heilongjiang Province on May 12, 1965.  Credit...Lou Guoqi, via Contact Press Images

He went on to study cinematography at the Changchun Film School in the northeastern province of Jilin. But because of Mao’s disastrous economic policies during the program called the Great Leap Forward and the mass famine that followed, there were few job opportunities in the field. After graduation, Mr. Li eventually found a job as a photojournalist at The Heilongjiang Daily in Harbin.

He married Zu Yingxia, an editor at the newspaper, in 1968. That year — two years into the Cultural Revolution — Mr. Li was accused of being a “new bourgeois.” He was criticized before 300 employees of the newspaper for more than six hours and demoted.

The next year, he and his wife were sent to the countryside for “rectification” and forced into manual labor. By the time they were permitted to return to Harbin, in 1971, the height of the Cultural Revolution had passed. He went back at the newspaper, though it wasn’t until after Mao’s death, in 1976, that he finally felt safe.

Schoolchildren with red-tasseled spears and Red Guard armbands paraded past a Russian-style department store in Harbin in 1966.Credit...Li Zhensheng/Contact Press Images

In 1982, Mr. Li began teaching photography at a university in Beijing, where he met Mr. Pledge, of Contact Press Images, in 1988. They kept in touch and began working on Mr. Li’s photo book a decade later.

At his death, they were working on a new book, of self-portraitsthat Mr. Li took during the Cultural Revolution — a risky act at a time when people were expected to put party before self. Mr. Li also documented the pro-democracy protests in Beijing that led up to the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989, though he never published the photos.

“It had been his obsession all his life — to be a witness to history and to record it,” Mr. Pledge said.

Mr. Li at the Barbican Gallery in London in 2012. His collection remains one of the most complete and nuanced visual chronicles of how China’s Cultural Revolution had an impact on daily life far away from Beijing.Credit...Ray Tang/Shutterstock

In his later years Mr. Li split his time between New York and Beijing, where he could be closer to his son, Xiaohan, and daughter, Xiaobing. Information on his survivors was not immediately available.

Mr. Li’s lifelong wish was to make his fellow Chinese remember the Cultural Revolution. That mission became more difficult in recent years as the Chinese authorities reversed efforts to reckon with modern history, resulting in what some have called a nationwide collective amnesia.

Still, he took a step closer to the goal in 2018, when the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press published the first Chinese-language edition of “Red-Color News Soldier.” Though it was distributed mainly in Hong Kong and Taiwan, some copies found their way to mainland China through unofficial channels.

“Some people have criticized me, saying I am washing the country’s dirty laundry in public,” Mr. Li said in 2018. “But Germany has reckoned with its Nazi past, America still talks about its history of slavery, why can’t we Chinese talk about our own history?”

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Ten Killed in Boiler Explosion in Iran: Fars News (Reuters) Ten people were killed and five wounded after a boiler exploded in a residential area of the city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, Fars News reported in a Twitter post on Saturday.

Papua New Guinea Volcano Erupts, Forcing Villagers to Flee (Reuters) An island volcano on the north coast of Papua New Guinea erupted early on Saturday, forcing 2,000 villagers to flee from lava flows, the National Disaster Centre said.

Fire at Hot Springs Hotel in Chinese City of Harbin Kills 18 (Reuters) A fire early on Saturday morning at a hot springs hotel in the far northeastern Chinese city of Harbin killed 18 people, with 19 injured, authorities in the city said.

Trump Cancels Pompeo’s Trip to North Korea Over Stalled Nuclear Diplomacy (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly canceled his top diplomat’s planned trip to North Korea on Friday, publicly acknowledging for the first time that his effort to get Pyongyang to denuclearize had stalled since his summit with the North’s leader. Trump partly blamed China for the lack of progress with North Korea and suggested that talks with Pyongyang, led so far by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, could be on hold until after Washington resolved its bitter trade dispute with Beijing.

Congo Rejects Presidential Bid of Opposition Leader Bemba (Reuters) The election commission of Democratic Republic of Congo has excluded opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba and three former prime ministers from the list of approved candidates for December’s presidential election, which was published on Friday.

Pope Travels to Transformed Ireland (Reuters) Pope Francis will arrive in Ireland on Saturday to find a society transformed since the last papal visit 39 years ago.

Egypt Orders Detention of Ex-Diplomat, Opposition Figures (Reuters) Egypt’s public prosecutor on Friday ordered the detention for 15 days pending investigation of a former diplomat and other opposition figures who have criticized President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

Trump Cuts More Than $200 Million in U.S. Aid to Palestinians (Reuters) The United States is cutting more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinians, the State Department said on Friday, amid a deteriorating relationship with the Palestinian leadership.

‘Critical Worsening’ of Conditions for Migrants Detained in Libya: UNHCR (Reuters) The U.N. refugee agency said on Friday it was gravely concerned about a deterioration in conditions for migrants held in Libyan detention centers that had led to riots and hunger strikes.

Germany’s Merkel: Atrocities Against Armenians Must Not Be Forgotten (Reuters) German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday addressed the massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 after meeting with the country’s prime minister, saying the atrocities committed against Armenians should not and would not be forgotten.

Zimbabwe’s President Calls for Peace After Court Upholds Vote Win (Reuters) Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa called for peace and unity after the constitutional court on Friday confirmed his victory in a July 30 election, dismissing a challenge by opposition leader Nelson Chamisa.

Australian PM Starts Work as Anger Over Party Vote Simmers (AP) Australia’s new leader Scott Morrison has spoken with President Donald Trump, organized his Cabinet and met drought-affected farmers as the backlash continues over another prime minister selected by an internal party vote.

A Year After Fleeing Myanmar, Rohingya Demand Justice (AP) Thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees on Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the attacks that sent them fleeing to safety in Bangladesh, praying they can return to their homes in Myanmar and demanding justice for their dead relatives and neighbors.

Mexico: 6 Civilians, Soldier Dead in Guerrero State Shootout (AP) Seven people were killed in an armed confrontation Friday between gunmen and army troops in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, authorities said.

Maduro’s Stepsons Face Scrutiny in $1.2 Billion Graft Case (AP) U.S. prosecutors are looking into whether relatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro were benefiting from what they contend was a scheme to siphon off $1.2 billion from the state-owned oil company, two people familiar with the U.S. investigation told The Associated Press.

Venezuelan Migrants Pour Into Peru Before New Rules Enforced (AP) Thousands of Venezuelans fleeing their nation’s economic and humanitarian crisis rushed to reach Peru on Friday before stiffer new rules go into effect that will make entering the fellow South American nation more difficult.

Dozens of Palestinians Wounded in Gaza Border Protest (AP) Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israeli gunfire wounded 50 Palestinians protesting along the border with Israel, and dozens more were treated for tear gas inhalation.

[newstfionline]

In Russia’s Far East, a Fledgling Las Vegas for Asia’s Gamblers

By Andrew Higgins, NY Times, July 1, 2017

ARTEM, Russia--On Russia’s eastern rim, where endemic corruption and bureaucratic sloth conspire to hold back the economic dynamism enriching the rest of Asia, a shimmering palace rises from a dark forest in an improbable effort to tap into the wealth of nearby China, Japan and South Korea.

At a time when few Chinese or other investors want to take a gamble on Russia, the forest property, 4,000 miles east of Moscow, beckons deep-pocketed Asians who not only do not mind risk but delight in it--and are ready to wager their money on the baccarat tables and roulette wheels of the Russian Far East’s fledgling answer to Las Vegas.

Tigre de Cristal, the lone casino so far in what the authorities in nearby Vladivostok hope will become a vast “integrated entertainment zone” with eight different betting palaces, is Russia’s biggest gambling complex. Financed largely by a Hong Kong company, Summit Ascent, it is also the single biggest Chinese investment in a region that President Vladimir V. Putin has tried to turn into a showcase of Russia’s “pivot to the East.”

Ever since Nikita S. Khrushchev stopped off in the Russian Far East after a trip to California in 1959 and decreed that Vladivostok had become “a second San Francisco,” the port city’s formidable assets--great natural beauty, location in Asia and a highly educated population--have stirred bold dreams. These have all been followed by bitter disappointment.

Chinese gamblers are arriving, however, if only because gambling is illegal in their own country, except in Macau on the southern coast near Hong Kong, and because the forest northeast of Vladivostok offers the only accessible casino for the more than 100 million Chinese who live in provinces just across the border from Russia.

Li Yunhui, a 45-year-old businessman and gambler from Mudanjiang, a Chinese city about 150 miles from Vladivostok, said the Russian casino lacked the amenities and service of established gambling centers like Macau, but added: “At least it is close. And the air is clean.”

He said he had visited Vladivostok regularly since the early 1990s and could not fathom why Russia had lagged so far behind China in building its economy. “It feels like a developing country here. This is how China was decades ago,” he said. He added that he had tried to set up a small business in Vladivostok but had despaired at all the red tape: “What you can do in a day in China takes weeks here.”

The gambling venture is itself a showcase of how slowly things gets done. Government officials began pursuing the idea nearly a decade ago. They enlisted a well-connected local businessman, Oleg Drozdov, to build the hotel and casino complex now housing Tigre de Cristal. But Mr. Drozdov was arrested in 2013 on corruption charges after the ouster of the Primorye region’s disgraced former governor, Sergey Darkin.

Summit Ascent, the Hong Kong company that now owns 60 percent of the casino venture, took over the concrete shell left by Mr. Drozdov’s builders and, after investing $200 million with other investors, finished the construction and opened the casino at the end of 2015. The company, which reported a modest profit for last year, now plans to invest an additional $500 million to build a second luxury hotel, a golf club, extra gambling rooms and other facilities in the same entertainment zone.

Four other casinos planned by other companies, due to be open by now, are far behind schedule. Empty plots of land with scant signs of construction dot the forest. A Russian court recently canceled the casino project of a Russian developer because it was too slow in getting off the ground.

Eric Landheer, Summit Ascent’s director for corporate finance and strategy in Hong Kong, said that his company had “first mover advantage and a monopoly,” but that it did not want to be alone in the forest for long because gamblers preferred a more vibrant cluster of casinos.

Gambling has a long and often troubled history in Russia, where attitudes have been shaped by the Orthodox Church, which opposes casinos as the devil’s work, and by the writings of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a gambling addict who explored the allure and perils of addiction in his novel “The Gambler.”

A champion of traditional Christian values, Mr. Putin banned casinos and slot machines in 2009, complaining that too many Russians “lose their last penny and pensions through gambling.”

Having Chinese and other foreigners lose their money, however, is apparently not a problem. Indeed, their losses now cover the salaries of around 1,000 Russians working for the Tigre de Cristal casino and provide a badly needed source of income for the Primorsky region around Vladivostok, a city that, aside from corruption-addled, state-funded infrastructure projects, has struggled to attract outside investment. Closed to foreigners during the Soviet era, the city now has regular flights to and from Harbin, Beijing and other Chinese cities, and can also be reached by road and train.

To make the fleecing of foreigners and a restricted number of Russians possible, Moscow gave permission for the establishment of four special gambling zones. The westernmost of these, in Kaliningrad, targets gamblers from neighboring Poland, while the others are in the resort town of Sochi and in the Siberian region of Altai.

Russians are also allowed to gamble at the Tigre de Cristal, so long as they show their passports and register. This has not gone down well with Russian priests and those who see casinos as a poor substitute for healthy economic development.

“Anyone who has read Dostoyevsky knows all the problems that gambling brings,” complained Andrei Kalachinsky, a veteran journalist in Vladivostok. “The spread of prostitution will definitely create jobs, but what kind?”

Transportation infrastructure has been another problem. A new highway connecting the casino area to the Vladivostok airport turns into a mud track in the final stretch. A winding road to the center of Vladivostok, around 35 miles away, is so clogged with traffic that Yuri Trutnev, Mr. Putin’s envoy for the Russian Far East, proposed opening a ferry service to speed up the journey to the casino.

The authorities have also been sluggish in delivering on a promise of visa-free entry for visitors from China and other selected countries. Despite the delay, Chinese can still obtain visas relatively easily if they sign up for a tour, and their numbers visiting Vladivostok and the surrounding Primorsky last year more than doubled to around 300,000.

Yuri Kuchin, an opposition member of the Vladivostok City Council, said local bureaucrats usually hindered rather than helped foreign investments, dragging their feet on most issues unless there is a financial benefit for themselves. While a bitter critic of the government, he said he supported the foreign-led casino project as a source of jobs and a good way to squeeze out illegal gambling dens in the area, which he said were often protected by corrupt officials.

A number of foreign projects in Vladivostok have fizzled, including two five-star Hyatt Hotels that were supposed to have opened for business five years ago but are still under construction. Yet the Tigre de Cristal casino, though delayed by various mishaps like the arrest of a local business partner, is now not only up and running, but is making a profit.

Lawrence Ho, Summit Ascent’s chairman and son of the Macau gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, acknowledged in a report to investors that the “year has not been without its challenges” but said, “Over all, I am very optimistic about the potential of our investment in the jewel of the Russian Far East.”

The most lucrative sources of business at the casino are Chinese high-rollers recruited by so-called junket operators, agents who find gamblers, provide credit, make travel arrangements and manage private V.I.P. rooms at the casino. For these services, the casino pays the junket operators a chunk of what it wins from their clients--more, Mr. Landheer said, than the 40 percent to 50 percent paid to them in Macau.

All the same, Tommy Li, a junket manager from northeastern China, complained that Vladivostok offered few of the attractions of Macau and was far too cold in winter. Its only real appeal for Chinese gamblers, he said, is its proximity.

One of his main gripes is that there are not enough prostitutes, who he said were far more readily available, and cheaper, in Macau. Mr. Landheer, the corporate finance director, said his company was not in the business of providing prostitutes and would “like to see all illegal activities eliminated.”

But, he added, there “are many other service providers” in Vladivostok ready to satisfy all the gamblers’ needs.