A classified advert in the free newspaper, the UK China Times, available throughout the UK, was used to recruit the women.
It is followed by a UK mobile number that leads to a brothel in Belfast.
The brothel manager, known as Lisa, who keeps half the earnings, said she was "trying to help" the women.
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BBC News NI enlisted the help of a Chinese journalist based in London. Posing as a potential recruit, she called the number in the advert and spoke in Mandarin to Lisa.
After asking her age, and if she was fat, Lisa agreed to employ the journalist for sex work.
She told her to fly to Belfast, bringing high heels, school girl and nurses outfits, and warned against packing too many condoms in her bag to avoid suspicion from the authorities.
Lisa told the journalist that she had run two brothels but now only had one.
When they met, Lisa discussed a range of sexual activities and said: "When you make money, I make money, too. It's £70 per half hour, £100 per 45 minutes. £130 for an hour. Understand? We go fifty-fifty."
She said: "If you can make £1,700 to £1,800 a week, I'll be laughing."
When first confronted with allegations of her criminality, Lisa refused to answer the BBC's questions.
A white man, in his mid 40s, who had driven Lisa to the encounter, drove off when he saw BBC journalists.
Later, Lisa wiped away tears and said in faltering English: "My husband here doesn't know. I have family here."
Speaking about sex work she said: "I was just trying to help [this girl]. This time is very difficult, December, January, February, No money, no customers. I'm not working, just sometimes. I didn't put that advert in the paper [since] a long time. I'm a very nice woman."
When asked about the two brothels she had run, she said: "I'm not [running] two or three. How can I do this? I'm not a big woman."
She responded to the claims she made on the phone saying "it's a wrong number", and "I think your hearing is wrong".
The full story can be heard in a BBC Radio Ulster documentary  - Vice Girl or Victim - on Sunday at 12:30 GMT and on the iPlayer.

In some hotels featured by the Fifa-appointed agency Match, room rates will be up to five times higher during the tournament, a recent study suggests.
The board fears that "stratospheric" costs could damage the country's image.
The World Cup opening match will be on 12 June 2014, in Sao Paulo.
The board, known as Embratur, said that Match should change its policy of blocking hotel rooms and also called upon the agency to reduce its mark-up rates.
"We propose that the companies involved conduct new rounds of negotiations to lead to a restructuring of the prices,'' the board was quoted as saying in a document by the Associated Press news agency.
The board claimed: "Fifa/Match charges mark-up rates of more than 40% on the amount contracted with the hotel, something that contributes decisively to the increase of the already high rates."
However, Match said that it does not regulate room rates and that prices are set "by the hotel owners and other tourism stakeholders".
"As of yet it is totally unclear to Match Services on what criteria Embratur has been comparing rates as we have not been consulted in this matter," AP quoted the agency as saying.
It added that if hotels lowered their rates if would "readily pass the benefit of any such reduction to its customers".
The World Cup is one of the most popular sporting events and is expected to attract a large number of tourists to the host country.
According to Fifa, the 2006 World Cup held in Germany was attended by more than 3.3 million fans - with many of them flying in from all across the world.
Fifa is expecting a similar demand for the 2014 World Cup.
Brazil's tourism board said that it was concerned that if fans coming from outside the country had to pay excessive prices, it might hurt the country in the long run.
"We want to guarantee economic success and a legacy for the country that goes beyond the 2014 World Cup,'' it said.
In June, there were widespread protests in Brazil where the high cost of preparations for the World Cup was among the issues raised.
BBC News NI has uncovered a brothel luring undocumented Asian women to Belfast with the promise of work to pay off people smugglers.
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Brazil's tourism board has asked world football governing body Fifa and hotel operators to try to bring down hotel prices â€“ which have reportedly sky-rocketed for the World Cup period.