It began the way my Tuesdays will begin for several months, I went to class. I was able to speak to my parents in the morning and say goodbye before I left for China and then headed to my 6 hours strait of upper-level business classes. I will only say two things about my classes because although they took up a large portion of my day they were not interesting compared to what happened after class. First, in my Judgment and Decision Making class we played a game of prisoner’s dilemma that my group (and our competitor group) won through mutual cooperation and trust. We only make one mistake during the day and that was our group, based on my recommendation, decided not to cooperate in the first round and the other group did. This was remedied after round three when we were able to collude temporarily. As a matter of fact, our competitor group and we were the only two able to cooperate for the rest of the game, with the rest of the groups backstabbing each other. The second thing I was that it’s a bad idea to have your worst two classes at the end of the day because it just crawls along.
After class I returned to my room, beginning to fill with trepidation about the trip to China I was about to embark on. After eating lunch (because I had class from 10:30AM to 4:30 PM) and realizing I only had an hour to pack, I began to frantically run around my room throwing clothes and things I would need on my bed while figuring out how to cram everything in my backpack. I did not want the hassle of carrying an extra bag with me, but at the same time I wanted to bring along my laptop because I knew I had to write these blog entries while the experiences were still fresh in my mind. I carefully surveyed my things and made sure I had an adaptor, my computer power cord, my phone was fully charged, and I had my camera. At this point I distinctly remember looking at my camera and thinking “I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately, should I charge the batter before I go?” I decided against it because I was using both plugs on my side of the room because my camera battery lasts for months usually. After much cramming I was barely able to fit everything in and proceeded to go to the meeting point. This was only interrupted when I got half way there and remembered I needed to send an email before I left and I had to run back to my room, boot up my laptop, send the email, and arrived about 10 minutes late. There are seven of us in our group: CS (Chorng Shin), Ri Huang, Chang Sheng, Lucas (who is from another university but from Singapore), Wai Zin, Deborah, and myself.
From there we departed to the MTR and took that to the train station where we took a train to the border with China. This train was not a subway like the MTR I usually speak of, but rather an actual train with engine and coaches. I enjoyed the brief trip and it dropped us off right besides the customs area. Now, lucky for me I’m not considered a visitor to HK because of my student visa and am able to travel in the HK resident line through customs. This went without event and my entry into China was simple and easy. When we walked outside the customs building we exchanged money and began our journey to dinner. At this point we were in the city of Shenzhen which is just across the border with HK, so we hadn’t traveled very far into China yet.
Now, I thought china looked the same as HK when we got out, and mentioned so. As soon as I said this CS got a horrified look on his face. Apparently he thought I was crazy. As we began walking around I realized that my initial impression was indeed incorrect in several ways. I do not mean anything I say here to be construed in the wrong way or insulting to anyone; these are simply the things I noticed. First, lots of people smoke and they also smoke indoors (like in Macau). Second, being polite is not common and people have no problem walking into you, cutting in front of you, and pushing their way through crowds. Third, lots of people spit on the ground and do not use the trashcans. Fourth, the buildings might look similar in style to many in HK, but they are generally more worn down, older than, and not as nice as HK. Fifth, I could actually recognize many of the characters on signs because of the semester of Mandarin I took my freshman year. Sadly, although I could recognize them I still don’t remember what they mean. Sixth, people don’t really use crosswalks. Instead, they just walk across the street wherever they are if there is or is not a break in traffic (basically they just cross if they think they won’t die). Seventh (it’s the list that never ends), they drive on the right side of the road like in the US. It took me a few days to get used to HK driving on the left side of the road and having escalators going on the left and such things, and just when I was finally trained for everything on the left China goes and switched it around. Lastly, I also saw that many times people have complete disregard for the traffic laws. People would do u-turns in the middle of the road even if there was a steady stream of cars traveling in the opposite direction, sometimes cars would blatantly go through red lights if there wasn’t traffic coming or pedestrians crossing (and sometimes they would go even if there were pedestrians in the crosswalk and I had to jump out of the way). Whew, that was a long list, but I think I understand why CS gave me that funny look. Oh, I forgot, almost no one here speaks English. 
So, we hopped on the city metro and went to a Japanese buffet restaurant. This was my second Japanese buffet restaurant (I went to the first one with CS and Wai Zin where they made me try Saké) and it was fun. My favorite part of the meal was a dish of steak that was cooked very well and had just the right amount of seasoning on it, and I found several other dishes I liked. One of the more interesting parts was that we ordered both Saké as well as some sort of plumb wine Saké thing. So, there’s a saying in Singapore called “yi si, yi si” (pronounced “esu”) that means you should try everything, even if you don’t like it. I knew that I would not 
like this new plumb wine thing, but I tried it nevertheless. After all, I’m here to try new things and experience new cultures. Turns out, I was right; I didn’t like it at all. For some reason, the taste of alcohol and sweet plumb does not sit well with me. So, after the first sip I poured the remainder into my empty Coke glass and continued to eat. Next came the obligatory toast where we all had our small glass of Saké together which was slightly less revolting than the first time I tried it. To help wash it down I grabbed my glass of coke which still had some ice cubes in it and some water in the bottom. Well, as luck would have it, it was not melted water but rather than plumb wine I dumped in earlier in the evening. Lucky me, it was just as bad the second time. One of the most interesting dished I saw was a dish that had some sort of long and curled strips of something that moved. Ri Huang explained to me that the heat from the dish causes them to move in different ways, but I was absolutely fascinated by it. I was so interested that I decided to take video of it. So I pulled out my camera and took some video and was about to turn it off when I almost slapped myself. Right then, the low battery light came on and I didn’t bring the battery charger with me. I learned an important lesson from that: the little voice inside of me that makes me notices things like that is almost always right. 
In addition to the meal itself, I encountered a rather big shock while at the restaurant. So, after we were done eating I went to the bathroom. Guess what! I walked into the stall and much to my surprise there was no toilet. Yes, for those of you who are as ignorant as I was the toilet was not a normal toilet like in the US but rather more akin to a porcelain hole in the ground. Certainly nothing I had seen before! So I stepped into the stall, saw this, and literally jumped back out of the stall out of surprise. A picture of what it looks like is below. In fact, most of the toilets here are like that. Furthermore, they actually had an aquarium with fish in the ceiling. Yes, I wrote that correctly, in the ceiling. It was a large plate of glass and about four inches of water with light shining down through it to make very interesting reflections on the floor and I’ve included a picture of it as well. 
At this point we walked around the town a bit where I observed people spitting everywhere, tons of smoking, people throwing litter on the ground next to the trash cans, and my favorite part was when we were walking by a street store and I heard the Numa Numa song playing (the one from that youtube video). I started to crack up and my friends couldn’t figure out what was so funny. We also visited a DVD store, but they were just closing. So after my adventure at dinner we got into taxis and went to the spa. And I mean a full-service massage parlor, not like a hot tub type of spa. So we arrive and an employee comes over and holds open the door of the taxi while we get out and then another doorman holds open the door to the actual place. I think this deserves a bit of back-story before I go any further. One of the things the rest of the group had been very excited about for the trip was going to the spa because it was only about 200 RMB. Now, RMB is akin to the dollar we use in the US, and Yuan is the name of the currency. So, 200 RMB is about equal to $30 USD. Unfortunately for me, I have a history of being extremely ticklish. What does this mean you might ask? I hate massages. Every time in my life someone has tried to give me a massage it has ended in one of three ways. First, I’m so ticklish that I squirm in agony until they give up. Second, I decide I can’t take it anymore and ask them to stop. Third, I refuse it to begin with. As such, when I was told we were going to a spa for massages the first night I was anxious to say the least. So the seven of us finally arrive and walk into the spa. The inside was very nice, with Chinese New Year decorations prominently displayed around to create a festive atmosphere, but not in a way that detracted from the existing décor. A few people gave me some strange looks as we stood in the lobby, but I’ll come back to that later. At this point I have no idea what to expect. My guess was that we would go into a massage room to get our massages and then go to whatever sleeping arrangements they had for us (because you got to stay overnight in the spa for free). Let’s just say my guess was wrong.
At this point I will warn you that the following several paragraphs will describe the spa experience in great detail and reader discretion is advised (I always wanted to say “reader discretion is advised” in my blog). By now it was around 10:30 PM, and the next 24 hours were quite possibly the most memorable 24 hour period of my entire life. They then proceeded to direct the two girls to the right, with all of us guys walking to the left. Then each of us received a bracelet with a number on a tag that identified each of us. We were led down a passageway and a couple turns later they took each of us to our own cabinet in a large locker room of sorts. This is where my troubles began. So a guy looked at my bracelet and lead me to my locked where the ID tag on the bracelet has an RFID chip embedded in it, and when you put it up to the locker along with one of the bracelets from the attendants in there your locker unlocks. I thought that was really cool, because so many things here in China and HK use RFID technology like the MTR systems (subways) and public transportation all use it. So, I have no clue what to do at this point because I don’t speak Chinese well enough to pick up more than a couple words of what they are saying. Starting now is the part where I said reader discretion is advised. Based on their hand motions I figured I was supposed to put stuff in my locker such as my backpack (because my backpack was the only luggage I brought with me) as well as my coat. Right now I’m thinking “oh, so we store all our stuff here before we go to the massage rooms.” No. I look around and ask the other guys I’m with what to do and they explain that we’re getting ready to take a shower (which is why it looks like a locker room). Now, I’ve never been in the military or anything where I’ve used public showers so I’m starting to get nervous because there is obviously nothing for me to do but go along with what everyone else is doing. So I wrapped a towel around my waist and undressed. OK, I can deal with this. So now we all walk into the shower area where there are several hallways of sorts with shower stalls and I follow my friends into one of the rows. Then came the next big surprise of my day, the shower stalls have walls, but no doors. Awkward moment number two. So I went to the last stall and took a very quick shower. I’m guessing the other guys picked up on my awkwardness and they asked me how I was doing and if this was weird for me, to which I replied something along the lines of “You have no idea how awkward this is.” They laughed. So after a quick shower (we’re talking about 45 seconds including washing my hair) I waited in my stall and tried to read the back of the shampoo bottle to see what Chinese characters I remembered. After they were all done we walked back to the main hallway area where there were several sinks. At each sink was everything you could want from shavers to toothbrushes to skin care products. So I washed my face and brushed my teeth while waiting for my friends to do the same. After that was finished we were led down yet another long hallway to a place where they gave each of us shorts and a shirt. At this point I just keep telling myself, “I’m trying something new, experiencing another culture, wow this has been awkward for me so far!”
So far I have no seen anyone else in this entire place who was not Chinese, nor will I see another non-Chinese person for the remainder of my stay, so however much I stuck out walking around there streets where there is the occasional White person here in the Spa I stuck out even more. Practically every part of me stands out: my hair isn’t black and even has some blonde in it, I’m taller than anyone else there and my head sticks, and obviously I don’t look Chinese. In HK I got somewhat used to sticking out, but this took it to a whole new level. People kept staring at me everywhere I went! Trust me, I’m not being paranoid or overly sensitive here. So after that was done we were led into a huge room with recliners in rows. We were then taken through another two rooms similar to the first one and into a fourth room with similar amenities. Here we sat down in comfortable chairs and each one even had a personal LCD TV on a swivel joint. Someone came and took drink orders from us and we relaxed. At this point I’m thinking to myself, “this isn’t so bad, now we just sit here while we get our massage before bed, it’s actually kind of nice.” So whenever someone says something I have to wait for CS to translate it for me and then relay messages back to the person asking, which I’m sure was annoying for him. CS, if you’re reading this, let me say thank you so much.
After several minutes four ladies came over to give us our foot massages: it was about to begin. I was tense and filled with apprehension, awaiting the moment when I would discover just how much I could control the ticklish part of me. For you information, my feet are the most ticklish part of me (or so I thought). Then it began, and at first I had to use every ounce on self control to prevent from pulling my feet back and screaming. It slowly got better, and I eventually enjoyed it somewhat. I’m not sure if it was a good massage or not, seeing as how I have never had one before, but it did not give me that relaxing feeling (although my anxiety and subsequent tension over the whole thing could be to blame). After about 30-40 minutes of foot and leg massage it was over, and I admit I was glad. I also felt very bad because everyone else was talking to their masseuse the entire time, and I was clearly unable to. I ended up leaving her a 30 RMB tip (about $4 USD). At this point it was a little after 1AM and I was amazed at how much activity was still going on despite the late hour. I was happy at this point. The massage was over and I could go sleep. I managed to get through it! Or so I thought…
Next we were led down more hallways to even more hallways with massage rooms on each side. Instead of being over, I realized my experience had only begun. So the girls went down another hall and CS and I were led to a room with two massage tables where I awaited the next leg of my journey. Shortly thereafter two young ladies walked in and spoke to CS. He then explained to me what to do and we lay down on the tables (the ones with the hole for your face). I lay there in immense apprehension as I knew that this would be much, much worse than any foot massage. Every second seemed to last minutes as they prepared the room and my anxiety grew. Finally it began. She started with the shoulders and began working her way down my back. Remember those worries of mine about getting a massage? Turns out they were well founded. About a minute after she began I heard laughing and she said something to CS. He then relayed the message to me “you need to relax” he said. Every time she touched my back I could feel my muscles contract and tense up and try as I might, I found myself feeling helpless to stop it. So she started again. Another minute of agony went by until she said something to CS again. He relayed the message “she says you’re still too tense.” Great, somehow I managed to find a way to mess up a massage, apparently I’m talented. So I redouble my efforts of focus solely on relaxing my muscles and not letting them contract when she touches them. This mostly worked. Another couple minutes went by before she said something to CS again. For the third time he relayed the message for me, “she said you are still too tense, do you want her to be softer or harder?” I asked him to tell her to go softer with the thought that softer might mean I won’t tense up as much. Nope, no such luck. I did manage, however, to force myself to relax a bit and was mostly successful in preventing my muscles to contract.
I thought it was bad at first, but it only got worse as time went on. Soon after, she began a technique that involved reaching on your side and massaging sideways across your back. Remember how I said I thought my feet were the most ticklish part of my body? I used the word ‘thought’ on purpose, because it turns out my side is much, much worse. Every time she touched it my entire upper torso would lock tight and I had to fight the urge to burst out laughing in convulsions. Massages are supposed to be relaxing and calming for the person receiving it, but as I manage to prove over and over again, I don’t conform to the norm very often. So let’s recap so far, it’s not 2AM, and I’m in the middle of a back massage that is excruciatingly difficult for me. Finally she stops, and I was happy beyond belief that it was finally over. My happiness was soon replaced by reality when she placed very hot rocks on my back and began yet another new massage technique. This time instead of using her hands she used two large round stones that she rolled along the length of my back to create a strong point of pressure. In earlier techniques when she used her whole hand to apply pressure over a large area I was fine, but the worst was when she used her fingers or knuckles to apply concentrated pressure. If that was bad, you can imagine how I felt about these two stones. The second they touched my back I could feel my entire body tense up and I might have even jumped a bit the first time she did it. As she rolled them along my spine I could feel all the muscles in a one foot radius go completely rigid. I sensed that my poor masseuse didn’t know what to do with me, and I felt so bad about the whole thing, but I was trying as hard as I could not to tense up. After about a minute of trying I think she finally gave up and moved on to the next technique.
To summarize a bit, after my back came the legs, then I flipped over and she did the front of the legs and my chest, of which my abs were just about as ticklish as my side. After that she did my neck and my head. To give some explanation to this, I’m not used to other people touching me and so the entire sensation of a massage was not something I’m used to in the slightest and was honestly quite uncomfortable. CS must have been enjoying the whole thing, because he fell asleep twice. The lady doing his massage didn’t know what to do and has great expressions on her face as she tried to do massages, but clearly did not want to wake him up. Eventually, CS began to snore a bit and I honestly couldn’t help be laugh, and that pushed the two ladies over the edge and they laughed a bit as well. You could tell that they had worked hard to hold it in until that time, and my laughter was the tipping point.
Finally, at 2:47AM it ended. I can’t tell you the sense of relief I felt when it was over with. It wasn’t that it was bad per se, but rather that my own hypersensitivity to touch turned it into a stressful experience instead of the relaxing occasion it’s supposed to be. At least now I’ve tried something new and have a memorable experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Now that the massage was done we were led down yet more corridors to an area that had more hallways with sleeping places. Each place is sort of like a cubby about three feet wide that has walls and a pull-down cover in front. This way you just hop in, pull down the cover thing, and you have a place to sleep. I found myself so taken in by the entire experience of the day that I was much too awake to sleep even though it was already past 3AM. I ended up reading a magazine until sometime after 4AM before I fell asleep.
This day was simply amazing in so many ways. China was much different than I had imagined and I could never have guessed my experience at the spa would be so memorable. There are two more things I would like to mention before I end what will most likely be my longest post of the year. First, I felt guilty the entire time. The entire thing ended up being about $40 USD which is barely anything compared to the service I got. I dislike having other people wait on me because of my independent personality and so it was a bit hard for me to let all these people do stuff for me. Then, it was so cheap and I know they aren’t getting paid very much I feel even worse. Second, I wish to expand my earlier comment that I was the only non-Chinese person there. Everywhere I went people stared at me. I got a few looks in HK, but nothing like this. I got the sort of look like I was the first White person some of these people had seen in person and felt like everything I did was being examined in detail. Overall it was quite uncomfortable, but as you will read later, not the last time this would happen.
If you thought this was interesting, just wait until you read about my haircut tomorrow… Thanks for actually reading all 4700 words on this post (it’s taken me around 5 hours to write this so far) and I hope it was an enjoyable read.
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