按摩, Massage

Massage is very cheap here - you can get one hour massages for ten to twenty RMB (1.40 to 2.80) in rooms with several tables lined up and people being worked on through their clothes. The place I've usually gone is fun to visit - the massage therapists are all gossiping with each other and with the customers and you are relaxed by the atmosphere as well as the treatment, though it is pretty rough compared to massages I have received back home. The girls sometimes use their knees and feet to work on your back and butt.

My first visit was greeted with some uncertainty, and they rolled another customer over so he could tell me in English that I would have to wait twenty minutes. I replied in Chinese and they were all really impressed, though we had some communication problems later on - they had to get the same customer to ask me how I felt, and then a few of them all tried saying 'how do you feel?' in English, which they all thought was very funny. On another visit, they were worried again and tried to find a customer who spoke Mandarin. (Some here are embarrassed about their non-standard Chinese, but it's all the same to me right now!)That place has recently raised their prices from 15 to 20 kuai but it is still packed.