(City Weekend)
Updated: 2008-02-01 11:38

The elements are at play during this award-winning guasha treatment, providing a unique experience which combines traditional techniques with modern elegance.

Your element (wood, earth, fire, water or metal) dictates some of the details of your treatment-ours was metal. We proceeded to a warm, private room consisting of its own Jacuzzi, bath and shower.

After sipping hot ginger and honey tea from a delicate jade cup we changed into one of the softest robes we've ever touched and slipped our feet into an osthmanthus foot bath.

Our therapist then placed the soles of our feet upon smooth heated jade, using smaller pieces to massage pressure points on our feet and lower legs to encourage detoxification. We inhaled the scent of jasmine tea, then enjoyed.

Next we climbed into the Jacuzzi to enjoy a soak in a red rose petal and red tea bath, relaxing as the jets pummeled our skin with soft bubbles. The next part of our journey began with the relaxing vibrations of a metal chime bowl. Hands, forearms and elbows were then expertly employed intermittently with jade to provide a stimulating full-body oil massage tracing out our lines of tension.

We were blissfully impressed by the amount of attention paid to our often neglected neck. Closing the session with another set of melodic vibrations from the chime bowl, our journey was complete. The therapist even gives you your own piece of jade to commemorate the occasion.

Add: 6/F, Tower 2, Pudong Shangri-La Shanghai, 33 Fucheng Lu
Tel: 021-6882-8888 ext. 460
Cost: 1,680 net