On Sunday afternoon (after skipping a boring meeting in the Great Hall of the People) I was urgently requested for another meeting: sauna club.
Most foreigners here are unfamiliar with the huge saunas that have become immensely popular, see earlier entries in this blog. My favorite – because it’s so close to home – is still “Pacific Sauna” (Taipingyang) on Gongti Bei Lu. But there are others every 500 m.
I navigated through the city in a taxi, guided by mobile phone instructions, to arrive somewhere just outside the third ring road close to Fangzhuan Bridge (Fangzhuan Nan Lu), where the others were waiting. Together with a Chinese couple, good friends, our whole family discovered a new Sauna House “ Crystal Island”. Being far away from the foreigner’s favorite places I was (as usual) the only foreigner. The staff is always puzzled:
– that I am there
– that I do speak some Chinese
– that I seem to know how it works.
Staff and other visitors are overly curious to make anatomical comparisons, only possible when completely naked. (yeah yeah, I know, Christmas Tree?)
The second question from a “fuyuan” was how much money I made every month. Suddenly my Chinese became rusty.
Those clubs are huge. Chinese families go there with kids and we all find ourselves back (in pajamas) in the vast buffet restaurant. Sun ate like 15 crabs at a lightning speed, Valerie and myself competed for most raw salmon. Once completely stuffed we ended up flat in a large relax room where we got the traditional foot massage. Plus the acrobatic cupping – the girl quickly puts a flame in a cup and then “floooops” it over your soles in a quick succession. If I’d try it I would probably burn the Club. The girl I had was 19 years old, from Jilin Province and came to Beijing when 17… Sun was flattered as the guy who gave her massage declared her feet to be “very nice”. He was from Shandong and (exceptionally) over 40 years old.
Always a great experience except seeing the Chinese smoking everywhere, inclusive in the large sauna area, while eating fruit and cooling down from the sauna (and all naked). What the heck, I also lighted up one (sorry).
Recession or not, you won’t notice it in the clubs with mostly middle-class people as clients. It’s actually cheap – with the foot massage and all, something like 200 to 250 RMB per person. Maybe with the recession, people will even go there more: where can you have sauna, showers & all, free drinks, unlimited food and rest & watch TV for 100 RMB? You get even a free towel and underwear to take home.