Naked Spa

Over the past couple of months there’s been a lot of talk about a hot spring spa, a.k.a.the naked spa. The spa is attached to a hotel within a 10 minute walk from our apartment. From all the hype, all I really understood was that you had to be naked, no swim suits allowed! Many of my Western friends aren't too keen on a naked spa.  A couple of weeks ago my friend Cindy, who is Chinese, asked if I wanted to go with her. I thought a day at the spa sounded wonderful, naked or not.

When we arrived, I was surprised that we didn’t need to check in. We simply were handed a plastic bag, which contained a white hand towel & were escorted to a locker room. Cindy began taking off her clothes & I realized there wasn’t any warming up to this naked spa thing, you walk in and take off your clothes… so I took off my clothes.

 

After getting naked, we went to the pool area where there were many naked Chinese woman. There were multiple indoor pools in varying temperatures. There was also an outside hot tub and a wet and dry sauna. It was nice. We headed for an indoor hot tub. From the hot tub I noticed that there were small cubical type stations at one end of the room where it appeared women were scrubbing, with a towel, the bodies of other women. It’s not something I've seen in the U.S. From there we went to a special area to get a body scrub from an employee of the spa. The employees in this area were wearing matching bras and underwear. The underwear had the word "Rosy" bedazzled on the front of them. I guess that was their work uniform. The area had a number of large cubical type areas with 3 foot walls and large doorways. I lied naked on a massage table and had an employee used the white hand towel I was given when I arrived (so that’s what the towel is for), to give me a full body scrub, or at least that’s what I thought I was going to get. After a short bit my friend translated that the employee was stopping the scrub because I wasn’t “dirty.” Instead I agreed to a full body milk massage. The milk massage was $5.80.

After the milk massage we were issued pajamas, which were pink flannel shorts and matching tops, so we could leave the woman only area and have lunch. We enjoyed a delicious hot pot lunch Hot pot is where customers choose raw meat, seafood and vegetables and cook them in a pot with either spicy or bland broth at their table. After lunch we went to a lounge area where we got a 2 hour head, shoulder, leg and foot massage for about $21. We also checked out the communal sauna where both men and woman can lounge in there cool pajamas (men wear the same pajamas, but they are blue). Six hours later we left the naked spa. I’m a fan.

Needless to say, there are no photos associated with this post...

Old School Chinese Wedding

We recently attended a traditional Chinese wedding. Our friends Preston & Maria are American, but have lived in China for several years managing an English school called Jayland Learning.  They decided to go all out and have guests dress in traditional Chinese dress and follow many Chinese wedding ceremony traditions that most don’t follow any longer. We had a great time.

Here are some photos from the day, which includes Andrew wearing a dress:

The procession. The bride was carried from her home to the venue
with the groom walking in front.

Firecrackers shaped in a heart, notice the guy lighting
the firecrackers has a cigarette.

 

The groom relieving the beautiful bride.
The bride's face was covered most of the ceremony.

Andrew's dress was a favorite among male guests.

The bride & groom & us.

Andrew posing with his lunch crew.

The banquet style reception.

Enjoying the dinner.

Trying a cold chicken foot (a favorite amongst the Chinese) & Andrew's look of disgust.

Andrew not enjoying what he just placed in his mouth.

Cultural Introduction

A few weeks ago (I know, we're a bit behind updating the blog), Andrew and I attended 16 hours of China cultural training. The training was conducted by a company, Jayland Learning, which Intel contracts with to provide all Intel ex-pats and families an introduction to China. There were 9 people in the class. Five of them had been in China for over a year and we've been here already 6 months, so it wasn't exactly an "introduction," but helpful nonetheless. It helped us understand, at least a little bit, why some Chinese do the things they do. 

Here are a few random things we learned about the Chinese culture during the training:

• Chinese people typically do not directly communicate their true intentions, known to us as beating around the bush (much different from Andrew & my “direct” communication sytleJ)
• Chinese generally try to avoid direct confrontation; try not to make the other person look bad.
• Rather than responding with a direct yes or no, Chinese will often say things such as "it is inconvenient" or "I'll try my best," which means no, without saying no.
• Yes doesn't always mean yes. For example, when asked 'Do you understand,' and a person responds yes, it could only mean, 'Yes, I'm listening.'
• China is a collective-oriented society. Collectivist cultures expect people to identify with and work well in groups which protect the group in exchange for loyalty and compliance versus individualist cultures, such as the U.S., where individual uniqueness and self-determination is valued.
• As a westerner, our presence at a Chinese social function, such as a wedding or community event, is often viewed as something special and could raise the host's prestige and social standing.
• Never give a Chinese person:
• A clock. The phrase "to give a clock" means to attend someone's funeral in Chinese.
• An umbrella. The Chinese word rhymes with the word 'separate or break up.'
• Pears. The Chinese word rhymes with saying 'saying farewell' which is linked to breaking up or death.
• Scissors or anything sharp as it symbolizes severing relations.

In addition to the classroom setting, there were a lot of Chinese activities that we took part in. 

Traditional tea set-up

Following instructions, smelling the tea before tasting it.

Chinese artist

Our Chinese names: bai ting ya & bai an de.

Attempting to learn Tai Chi

Making traditional Chinese dumplings.

Traditional Chinese hot pot.

We ate all of the shrimp, eyes & shell included.

Learning how to write Chinese characters.

Pizza Anyone?

Andrew ordered pizza for his team last week. Since he doesn't speak Chinese he asked the administrative assistant, Cherry, to call. 

He asked her to order these pizzas:

1)      Cheese

2)      Meat & Veggie

3)      Veggie

When the pizzas arrived they got:

1)      Italian Sausage, hot dog, chicken, mystery meat, corn green peppers, pineapple

2)      Mushroom, tomato, peppers, corn, pineapple

3)      Squid, crab, fish, shrimp, oyster(?), peppers, tomato, pineapple

This is a picture of #3; if you look closely you can see the tentacles as well as crab and shrimp:

I think you can guess which one he didn't eat…

Pebble Beach

Andrew and I were interested in taking a hike a few weeks ago and a friend suggested a place for us to go. We didn't exactly find the area she suggested, but ended up at Pebble Beach. In the winter the beach is desolate, but I'm told in the summer I'm told the beach is packed with umbrellas and the water is a sea of neon flotation devices. I understand a lot of Chinese don't wear swimming suits, but rather clothing that covers all of their skin and sit under umbrellas to avoid the sun. I'm also told that many can't swim so adults wear floaties around their arms and tubes around their waists, similar to toddlers in the U.S. I'm looking forward to going to the beach in the summer. I guess I'll need to leave my swimming suit at home and bring my arm floaties.

The beach & a couple fishing boats.

It was a bit chilly.

Discoveryland, a small amusement park.

We're unsure why they decided to ruin this nice walkway by pushing the road onto it.

Many small fishing boats in the bay.

Traditional Chinese Dress & Karaoke

Andrew and I were invited to an iMandarin Show/Lantern Festival Party which was hosted by the company we take Chinese lessons with, iMandarin. The invite explicity said "dress up in traditional Chinese style. Being the rule followers that we are, I had a traditional Chinese dress made, called a qi pao, and Andrew wore a traditional Chinese jacket."

We didn't know what to expect of the party. It was held in the afternoon from 1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. and the invite said drinks and snacks would be served.

The day of we realized that the party was held at a karaoke bar, which in China, are called KTV. Andrew and I with our friends Leon & Kevin, arrived a little late and soon discovered, after walking through the stage area while a Chinese person sang karaoke, that besides a handful of iMandarin employees we were the only ones wearing traditional Chinese dress. I guess we are the only ones that follow the rules... This was my first time visiting a karaoke bar in China. I discovered the Chinese take their karaoke very seriously and since I'm not much of a singer, I don't think I'll be frequenting KTV bars.

Leon, Kevin, me & Andrew in our traditional Chinese dress.

Andrew begging to leave after we just sat down.

The craziness that is KTV. The foreigner on the right actually played his violin.

This Japanese man sang a song. (I don't think he realized his pant leg was up.)

An iMandarian teacher (also not in traditional dress) singing a Chinese pop song.

Our Own Fireworks...

Growing up, my Mum always said "You can never have too many fireworks and they can never be too big"... or something like that. I may have misunderstood her, but it seems like a good rule, so I am going to give her credit for the enormous fireworks show we put on. Thanks Mum.


After seeing the fireworks display on Thursday and Chinese New Year came to a close, we decided with some friends to put on a show of our own. Thankfully after the Chinese New Year ended there were many stores still selling fireworks, and a lot less Chinese people interested in buying them... so this means FIREWORKS for sale at a DISCOUNT!!!, which is pretty much awesome. And luckily for us, we have 10 or so friends here whose mothers also raised them with the right rules about fireworks.... 


So Saturday morning our friends Matt his daughter Sloan, Chris, Beth and I headed out to make a purchase along with the financial backing of James and Susy, and Charles and Denise.The purchasing experience itself was pretty amazing. We were in a room that was stacked wall to wall and floor to ceiling with fireworks. Matt's driver, Tiger, was our negotiator, and he and the woman who owned the place were going back and forth for quite some time. There was a fair amount of cursing and and she hit Tiger quite a lot. All in all we had $400 USD to spend and we did quite well, I think. We came out with 13 big boxes of fireworks, along with what Tiger picked up as we were walking out telling the lady that "this is part of our discount."  This comment resulted in him getting hit again, but she could not have been too mad as she lent us her van to take the fireworks home.

Here is Tiger Surveying the inventory in the store.

This is our purchase stacked in the office of Matt & Kris's complex's security office. The security guards were happy to hold them for us over night. The presence of a few hundred pounds of fireworks did not seem to prevent them from smoking in the office at all.

Matt and Tiger getting things ready

We set the show up in the road outside the complex. By "in the road" I mean it was literally in the lane of traffic and a car headed south would need to move into the north bound lane to pass our fireworks.
This was Tiger and the guards idea... we just went with it.

The view down the street... 

To give you an idea of the scale of our munitions... 

Looking back across the road at our set-up... you can clearly see the center line and we are near it. 

It was quite foggy out so it made taking pictures a little hard. 

Tanya all bundled up and before she put her safety goggles on. One of the guards children behind her is shielding his ears. 

Tiger lighting the first one

People kept driving through our fireworks... can't they see we are trying to put on a show here... how rude

One of the best shots of one exploding

Another rude driver... 

Us with our safety gear on. Safety goggles were a necessity.

While our show wasn't exactly as magnificent as the Dalian show we went to a few days before, I have to admit it was better than many fireworks shows I've been to in Canada or the U.S. and it was all for about 400 U.S. dollars.