Knives and Spa Pedicure in China

On our last morning in Shanghai before heading to the airport, Nicholas was up for one more spa experience as was I, so we decided to visit one of the large foot reflexology places which Geraldine Howard (Aromatherapy Associates) had recommended, telling us that we have to have an authentic Chinese pedicure where they”wield knives”.

Oh dear.

So off we went to the Tapian Spa (I think that is the English name for it).

We walked up several flights of stairs to find the front desk. After pointing to the menu, trying to get across that I wanted a pedicure, Nicholas wanted foot reflexology, and that we didn’t have 90 minutes (their minimum for a foot reflexology session) because we were heading to the airport but were willing to pay for 90 minutes anyway (It was only $20).

We gave up trying to convince anyone of anything and just settled in for our treatments.

The place has 100 foot reflexology chairs and about 300 clients per day.

No doubt their tools are sharp and their work precise – I felt no pain whatsoever and my callouses were gone. There was no sign of nail polish anywhere – this was about cleaning feet.

Nick loved his foot reflexology and although we did stretch our time from 45 minutes to almost an hour, we would have loved to stay for the entire 90 minutes!

No doubt if I lived here, or had such a place (at such a price) to visit in New York, I would take my computer and make this my post-work day retreat.