Massage: the latest for you, demanding customer

Interesting to watch week by week how the ads for massage in English magazines (some printed by the Beijing Municipality) start “explaining” better the different variations in their menu. Some of the ads also refer to websites, obviously being a serious researcher I have to check it all out. Most sites come in Japanese, Chinese and some English. The real interesting juicy (?) details are not explained. Some of the available treatments like Japanese massage (see pic) are certainly for the brave. The royal treatment by two girls look all very serious but I am so curious to know what really happens. And how.

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Some also have message boards. On one an angry customer wrote “Stay away from this place! The girls pictured here don’t work here! They are pics from actresses!”. Well, we guessed that already anyway.
Updated choices for the consumer as from recent ads, in Beijing only as Shanghai is remaining more discreet:
– prostate care & ED adjustment massage (hoho! adjustment!)
– royal massage by two people
– two person Swedish oil massage
– prostate maintenance (or care) (not new but now more featured – not in Shanghai however)
– imperial massage or masseuse royal massage
Prices: around 300 to 500 RMB for something like 60 or 90 minutes, just to give an idea.
In one of the larger spas (“Your Poetry Paradise”…) I got hold of the two pages of health treatments. Anything is possible: if you have problems related to: neck, shoulder, waist, leg, headache, insomnia, stomach & intestines function disorder, special care of prostate, Galactophore hyperplasia (??? have to Google that!), menses pain, climacteric syndrome (climate problem or hard to climax?), diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood fat, obesity syndrome, costipation (sic – I think what this means AND I think I know what they do – *), computer syndrome (that must be for me?) – NO PROBLEM. Massage at hand! Also available for: kidney, spleen, lung, liver and hart. And of course all the variations of foot massage.
*: must be what they call somewhere else in the menu “Intestine Hydropathy”: “Quickly cure constipation, piles, clear out the toxin accumulated in body, improve whelk, freckle, halitosis, intestine discomfortable, constringe belly and lose weight.” If you ask me, sounds scary.
And if all the above did not help, there is still “Adjust Subhealthy State” at 400 RMB for 60 min.
You see, all is possible in Beijing. Not to wonder that tours to those establishments are now available in the tourist circuit. Or for special pals who need guidance.
Oh, sorry! A couple of years ago Beijing ruled massage could only be given by the same sex. So, guys, no girls. No worry, no panic. I think they lost the regulation somewhere and everybody forgot all about it.

Beijing: construction and dust

According to Beijing’s vice mayor Ji Lin the city has currently 9,700 construction sites, something like the equivalent of construction all over Europe. It is one of the major causes of pollution – dust particles in the air. Beijing has imposed several rules: all trucks that transport soil and dirt must be closed, bare land, soil and sand needs to be covered by tarp as well as entire buildings under construction, wrapped in canvas as big boxes. Access roads to construction sites must be kept clean. You can see workers scraping the soil and cement off those roads and often spraying water, even on the truck tires. Well, those are the rules. It does not stop construction sites producing clouds of dust as workers often dump rubble “the easy way”. The never-ending construction next to Julong Garden is a typical example. We are constantly covered under layers of dust, opening windows is not recommended and cars need to be cleaned several times per day.

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I caught the workers in the act a couple of days ago, simply dumping dust and rubble from the building (see the highlighted circle). The clouds are easy to see and it is no fog…

Friendlies no more

BOCOG has given in and changed the name of the “Friendlies”. The name was a bit weird… some saw it as “friend – lies”. Now it’s FUWA, see the new poster from BOCOG.

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the new (BOCOG website) and the old (Beijing Airport) 2008 mascots

They are still replacing the posters everywhere but I still found one in Beijing airport. For souvenir’s sake.

Guangzhou Design Week 27 Nov to 2 Dec 06

I was invited as a speaker, my CV and details were posted on their website. Only one problem. I didn’t know about it and worse, I had to talk in Beijing at the same time. It turned out that six months ago, between two beers at a reception, I had agreed to talk “in Guangzhou” but the organizers never contacted me. Panic in Guangzhou when I said I couldn’t go, lots of calls and finally the schedule was changed so I could talk on 28 November in the morning, rush out of the seminar, catch the next plane and head to the Bencham seminar in Beijing.
The topic: “The future of sports in China & post-games use of facilities – the legacy of the 2008 Olympics, a case study”.

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The organizers got the text in advance to facilitate translation. What happened next, not clear. Maybe the interpreter had a bad night, the journalists did not bother to check the printed text of my paper, the journalists don’t understand English or had hearing problems. Probably all of the above.
In the next days Chinese websites were busy reporting on my speech, I would have said all kinds of very unfriendly things about Beijing and also gave a figure of 5,000 sports facilities existing in the capital – my paper mentions 40 major existing facilities excluding those belonging to the many schools, universities and other organizations.
On the way to the airport I was told some journalists wanted to interview me… Who knows what nonsense would have come out of that.
Nobody called to reprimand me of my hostile words. Anyway, I had the official text ready, graciously provided by the organizers.
Just imagine you work for a company and your boss gets the angry feedback – that would be a bad day to remember. One of my luxuries. No boss.

And the best photographer is…

My friend Peter Danford. As I always said anyway. Peter got the first prize in the Beijing contest with one of his pictures of the Watercube, seen from the inside on 19 October.

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the winning picture

View the series (inside & outside) on his site: http://www.thechinaguide.com/olympic_construction/oct-2006-swim-inside.html
See here what Beijing Today wrote on 1 December:
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American gets award for shooting Beijing
‘Beijing, An Olympic City in View 2006 Photo Contest,’ organized by the Beijing Travel Administration, held its closing ceremony on Tuesday in Oriental Plaza.
Peter Danford, USA, won first prize with his photo named The Water Cube. In the closing ceremony, he said he met The Water Cube’s Australian designer by accident when he was photographing it. Moved by his spirit, the designer alowed him to take an inside visit.
“It’s interesting. The expats in this city really offer a different view of things. We ourselves seldom have those ideas and perspectives. Most of the photos exhibited here seem to very unfamiliar sights, and for a moment, I couldn’t recognize it was from my city,” a Beijing local said.
Jeremy Zawodny, an Australian who took part in the competition, told Beijing Today, “It’s really important for us. We don’t see ourselves as ‘outsiders’, and feel we are a part of this city. Even though I didn’t get an award this year, I think I’ll still attend these kinds of activities.
This is the second time the Beijing Photo Contest has been held. “There will be a photo competition and exhibition among expats every year. We hope more and more people will take part in sharing their views of this ancient and modern city,” Ji Yue, apokesman for the event, said.
The contest began on May 10, lasting half a year until October 25. More than 13,000 works from 50 countries were submitted to the organizers. The best photos were selected and exhibited for three days on the ground floor of Oriental Plaza.
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Good job Peter!