Have I ever written about Chinese massages? If not, shame on me! Chinese massages are on the list of Top 5 must-dos when people come to visit me in China and they have also become a must-have for me while living here! Last year I did not take advantage of them nearly enough! So, I've decided to change my ways and now I get a massage every 2-3 weeks.
I make the 5 minute trek to the massage place with a friend or two from my school and we enjoy being pampered for the next 2 hours! We always get the same thing - the foot massage that is actually an entire body massage...fully clothed. :) They bring in big buckets of hot water with tea bags floating in the water and we soak our feet for about 10 minutes before they come in to start the massage. At the place that we go, there are several different rooms and each room has 1, 2, 3 or even 4 beds so if we go with a group, we can all be in the same room. Then the masseuses come in and get to work! They do about a 30 minute foot massage first, hitting every single muscle possible and I would have to say, this part can be excruciating! The first time I went, I actually glanced down at my feet several times because I could have sworn they were using a spoon to dig out the arch of my foot...yow! I always bear the pain and remind myself that they will feel better when it's done than when I first arrived...and it's true. One time I went to the massage place with a Chinese person and they told me that the masseuses kept talking about how beautifully white my feet were. (Side note...China is the opposite of America in that white skin is considered to be BeAuTiFuL! No one wants to be dark, hence the carrying of umbrellas on sunny days. Crazy, huh? My fair skin is admired far and wide in this country!)
After the foot massage the masseuses leave for a few minutes and then come back for another hour+ to do a head, face, neck, shoulder, arm, leg, stomach, back, butt...yes, butt massage! The head, neck and arm is my favorite part!
Afterwards we always lay on the beds for a few minutes as if we've just made it safely through a war-zone. Amidst the pleasure of a massage is a lot of pain - these masseuses are well-trained and they are STRONG! They can find every sore or weak part in your body and then, no mercy! Sometimes I do wonder why I keep going back, but I always feel amazingly good the next week or so and that's reason enough for me!
It's fun to compare with each other afterwards about what new things they did compared to other times - we often have different masseuses and their styles are very unique. Sometimes I wonder, "where in the world did they learn THAT!?!?" I won't go into detail...
Oh, and did I mention that we get this treatment for 68 yuan (exactly $10 USD)?? Now, that's a deal!
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3 comments:
That might be something we have to do when we come! $10 bucks!! I just paid $80 for a 1-hr massage last week!
It's tough when you have ticklish feet, though. =)
ohhhh...I could use that right about now. Sounds wonderful.
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