Some things I don't understand about China. The streets and public areas are filthy, which isn't a big suprise in any big city, but they are obsessed with cleaning. There are people everywhere in uniforms with little cleaning carts and twig brooms. They even dart out into the streets to sweep, stirring the dirt and grime and trash around. It doesn't help towards actual cleaning, from my observation. (What good is a twig broom on a dirty street?? Think about it.) Today in the museum parking lot, a woman even rushed over to sweep the parking spot with her twig broom before our driver backed into it. However, in the bad part of town, there are no people with twig brooms trying to clean.
Yesterday, I opted for a 'Massage with Channels and Collaterals', at the spa. The spa menu advertised, "by stimulating particular acupuncture points as well as channels and collaterals, Yin and Yang shall be blanced, and qi and blood shall be regulated, thus helping recovery of chronic diseases." I figured my qi needed to be regulated, and I always have a back ache, so it sounded good to me. It was a little disconcerting to be almost naked in a room with someone with whom I couldn't communicate, but I thought it was worth a try for a good massage. The people who work there wear white shorts and white polos with little gold name badges covered in Chinese characters. Although the spa menu has an "English" version, no one there speaks any English. The massage room was large and dimly lit, and would have been very nice except it smelled faintly of smoke. Do people smoke while they're getting a massage? I'm not sure how that works, but this is China and people are obsessed with smoking, so maybe there's a way. The girl gave me a pair of pink granny panties to put on, which she proudly indicated I could keep at the end of the massage. (I'm really excited about that.) The massage lasted an hour, and cost me 268Yuan, or about $44.50. I've never had a massage that came with all the beating with the side of the hand, firm slapping with the hand held a certain way, and yanking of limbs that I had with this one, but it felt really good. I still don't know what they mean by 'channels and collaterals', but I guess it doesn't matter all that much because I felt amazing and energized afterwards.
