I put my big foot in it and was richer for the experience

While the rest of Qingdao was busy planting petunias next to highways or carting away truckloads of algae from the beach in preparation for the 29th Olympic Sailing Regatta, we were treating ourselves to having our feet bathed and massaged.

This decision was made by my Chinese friends as casually as if we were going to KFC. But for me, a Westerner, "foot bath" and "foot massage" were awe-inspiring terms which evoked images of Jesus washing his apostles' feet in the Bible - a rite still observed by popes and priests on the Thursday before Easter - or the famous Niptra in Homer's Odyssey, where Odysseus's old nursemaid recognizes her protg from a scar while performing this hospitable rite.

To prepare us for the bath, each of us was seated on a reclining chair and allotted a masseuse. I had the impression that they were operating according to the "ladies first" principle. The three women bathed our feet in hot water which I found almost scalding. The water was redolent with rose, as they had poured in some bath crystals.