Panda-monium Part II

Next up... China Blog #2: Cupping

One of my goals in China was to try Eastern medicine and luckily Kate was my guinea pig. She said she's been to several Eastern medicine doctors for fun but she's had to be careful to invent a pain story beforehand because they won't practice on you unless you're serious about curing an ailment. She asked one about "trying" acupuncture and was told sternly that acupuncture isn't something to try- it's a cure and it's always successful.

A little more lighthearted is something called cupping that they offer at most massage salons. The cupper takes a glass bowl, swabs a torch on fire inside it which sucks out the air, and places that glass on the cuppee's back which instantly creates a suction. The glasses are left on for about fifteen minutes sucking away, supposedly sucking out the toxins in your blood. Or something like that....

Here's me with the glass doing its Eastern medicine non-magic:

Basically you get a bunch of hickeys all over your back. It doesn't exactly hurt while the glasses are on there but it's definitely a relief when they come off. Here's Andrew right after the glasses were removed:

The aftermath, 24 hours later. Pretty alien-looking, isn't it?