Jade Bath House

A Chinese friend/mentor of mine from church invited me last night to one of her favorite places to relax: a bath house. It seemed like an interesting cultural experience and I always love my time with her, so I went.

I knew most women would be nude. Fine. It's cultural, but it's not for me.

Maria: You know you will draw more attention to yourself if you wear a bathing suit.
Me: That's okay. I will feel more comfortable this way.

So into the locker room we went, she stripped down (bringing our friendship to a whole new level) and I (fully prepared) already had my suit on under my clothes. But before we started bathing, I needed to use the restroom.

(Conversation all in Chinese)
Me: Do you have a toilet?
Lady: ????big????small (Yeah I really didn't catch what she said. I was expecting a "yes" or a "no" or a point in some direction.)
Me: Can you say that again?
Lady: Do you need to poo (the big one) or pee (the small one) (. . .I caught it that time).
Me: Pee (the small one).
Lady: Then you can use this toilet. (Oh? This one. The one with no walls around it in the middle of the room where all of the nude women are showering. If I say I need to poo, does that mean I get toilet with a stall around it?)

So I sat down, but the feeling of needing to pee suddenly went away. People were staring. I'm foreign and I was wearing a bathing suit. I stood out. So I pretended for a moment, then just flushed.

Then we went into the community shower with women of all ages. We stood under hot water for about 20minutes. Maria said soaking under the warm opens up our pores. All the while I see nude women on massage tables being scrubbed by other nude women. The whole body. Scrubbing parts I wouldn't want someone else to scrub on me. I told Maria I didn't want to do that. She said okay. Whew!

Our next stop was a sauna with jade stones on the floor. Before we went in, they gave us disposable underwear and pink pajamas to wear. Then we nestled down into the jade stones. It felt lava hot, but I eventually got used to it and felt very relaxed. . .and sweaty. We laid there for about an hour chatting about life.

When we got back to the locker room, one of the employees kept staring at me and saying how beautiful I was. I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My face was bright red, my short hair was sweaty and sticking out in parts, and my mascara was running. She grabbed another employee from outside the locker room to come see me.

(Conversation all in Chinese)
Lady #1: Isn't she pretty?
Lady #2: Yes, so pretty.
Lady #1: Do you have siblings?
Me: Yes, I have two sisters.
Lady #1: Are they as beautiful as you?
Me: Even more beautiful. (I mean, it's true. But really, how was I supposed to respond?)
Lady #1 & #2: Wow.

Then back into the shower for 20 more minutes. I felt pretty darn clean by the end of it all. And as awkward as it was at times, I really enjoyed it. I got home feeling very relaxed and slept like a rock. And Maria already texted to ask when we can go again. Maybe next time I'll drop the suit.