For weary soles

Sun Hao lounges on a sofa inside the Beijing Jianqiao Blind Massage Center and waits for her feet to be massaged. The 24-year-old bank clerk has been suffering from a stiff neck and backache and is willing to try anything to relieve the pain.

"I sit in the office all day long, facing the laptop and, except for lunch, I rarely stand up or walk around," she says. "I am not as energetic as I was when I was a student and my health has suffered. So I came here to see if reflexology works."

But how does a simple foot massage, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice spanning back 5,000 years, cure the back and neck of a modern day office worker?