Chinese Massage aka ticklish torture

China has newly decided that the country will have a three-day holiday for the western New Years. However, unlike a conventional western holiday, the days off are Sunday-Tuesday but you have to work on Saturday. I'm not sure how they justify the trade-off, but there it is. This is a photo of our office building. We are on the 12th flr but keep in mind, there is no 4th flr - four in Chinese means death and is an unlucky number - and no13th flr. Our floor is about equal to the grey stripe on the building behind it.

After work on Saturday, Guo Xin and I went to have Chinese massage. The only thing I knew about this form of massage is that they concentrate on the meridians of your body which are all represented in your feet. Thus a lot of attention is given to your feet and then they work their way up your legs, back and finally head. It is an extremely ticklish undertaking. Fortunately, we were in the same room with our respective masseuses (mine male, hers female) so I had a translator. Not only was it ticklish but sometimes it hurt too. Both sensations distractions from what should be a relaxing experience.

I also opted for a treatment, which I have heard called "cupping" and Guo Xin referred to as "that awful thing". At any rate, I figured I'd try it. Glass globes are heated and then quickly placed on your back causing your skin to be sucked into the opening of the globes. This is supposed to be good if you have a cold because it sucks the "cold" out of your body. If you your body feels "heavy", it will make it "lighter". I don't have a cold, but figured lightening is never a bad thing. It wasn't terribly painful but after the allotted ten minutes (and for my masseuse, his allotted smoke-break if his gum chewing was any indication), I was happy to have them removed. The more "cold" you have in your body, the more purple the spots on your back will be. Apparently, I did not have a lot of "cold" in me. Good to know - and for a while I'll have big red circles on my back as a reminder.

Note: An internet search produced this explanation: "This technique draws the skin and the muscle into the cup through suction. The skin under the cup often turns red purple signifying a blockage of Qi correlating to the problematic and congested areas. Cupping is a method of treating disease which cause local congestion, drawing up underlying tissues and forming blood stasis. Cupping is particularly good for treatment of pain, gastro-intestinal disorders, chronic bronchitis, asthma and paralysis, arthritic pain and muscle spasms along with many other ailments."

Photo: I snapped this picture in the Xi'an youth hostel bar. It is such a great ad - perhaps it's saying that drinking their coffee will have the same effect as Chinese "cupping".