Cupping????

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Geo: 32.05, 118.78

You have a sore shoulder?
So how do you fix a sore shoulder in CHINA, you might ask?

CUPPING.

First you have a 45 minute massage that absolutely kills...
Thank you Dr. Bai.
She is really good but at the time it is very pain full.
Her English is limited but when i moan, groan or scream she asks, "PAIN?"
"Yes," I reply.
And she continues working on and around the area.
I focus on my breathing.
Then she rubs my shoulder and back with a special medicine imported from Hong Kong.
It smells and burns like Deep Heat.

She gets me to sit on a stool and she tells me to relax and breath.
She starts to apply the cupping things.
They are the size of an egg cup just longer and made of wood.

Out of the corner of my eye I see her put the lighter under the cuppy thingy and then wack its attached to my shoulder. The process continues until I have 6 of these thingys stuck to me.
Combined with the medicine that burned and the extra heat and pressure build up it was like the circles of skin being sucked into the cups where on fire.She then covered my shoulder with a blanket. To keep me warm I suppose but it also made it heavier.

"Relax, relax. Wait 5 minutes," Dr Bai said.

I kept breathing.... and started counting. I thought it would take my mind off these things that continued to burn. It wasn't pain full..... just really hot.

Dr. Bai keeps an eye on her watch. I have counted to 60 about 7 times.... I know it must be time.
She tilts them one at a time and pulls the skin to release them.
AAAHHH... That's much better.

So now I have these 6 bruises on my shoulder and back.
It has helped and it was an interesting experience.

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Photos

cupping
just done.

cupping 2
there are 6 in total

Cupping. 1 week later
the bruisers are healing pretty fast