Calm oasis in the bustling city
By Huang Yuli (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-28 09:54
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Unusual scents and beverages made from a secret recipe add spice to a top city spa, Huang Yuli finds
Standing out among the office buildings and shopping centers of the central business district, LeSpa of Sofitel Wanda Beijing Hotel provides a place where you could ease your mind and body. Located on the fifth floor of the five-star hotel, LeSpa offers top-notch French luxury and hospitality to its guests.
An automatic gate leads into a space lit with gentle lights and candles in the central aisle. There are altogether nine rooms, including two double rooms. Each is equipped with an ultrasonic bathtub, massage bed, dressing room and shower room with L'Occitane shampoo and bath foam.
Therapies feature Bayankala products, which use water from the source of the Yellow River high on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and Chinese herbal ingredients. Goji berry, lotus seed, Chinese mulberry and licorice are the four essential oils used.
Relaxation and reviving the body and spirit are the essence of the Spa, explained manager Yvonne Ng. The Malaysian has been in the business for more than 10 years and has managed Spa centers in Singapore and Beijing.
"People in this business are perfectionists," she said. "You really need to look into and take good care of every detail."
The most popular service is the Deep Relaxing Massage, a 90-minute massage using lotus seed essential oil to release muscle tension. The smell of lotus seeds and the finger movements of the therapist are extremely calming and restore a balance within the body.
The Deep Relaxing Massage begins with a fresh icy lemongrass drink, one of Yvonne's secret recipes, to cool down the body.
A greeting card with the name of therapist awaits you on the massage bed before you get showered and changed. A foot spa, which lasts about 10 minutes, comes next; rose-petals, salt and green tea leaves are added one after another in the foot bath to ease you.
After that just lie down and enjoy the touch of the heated hands of the therapist and immerse yourself in the fragrance of lotus seed oil.
Following the massage, indulge yourself with a soothing bath while drinking herbal tea and listening to the carefully selected music, or, you can bring your own choices as each bathtub has an iPod interface.
Special drinks, which you cannot find anywhere else, are a highlight throughout the spa, Ng said.
The Ethnic Fusion Massage is another specialty of LeSpa, in which the therapist employs a combination of hand techniques from Switzerland, Indonesia, China, Japan and Thailand within a single massage, assisted by the warmth of Aventurine Brazilian stones.
In the Sichuan's Feeling Massage, two therapists massage you at the same time and re-balance your Yin and Yang energy in a delightful way.
The price of the massages range from 680 to 1,880 yuan; one-year membership is 15,000 yuan per person, including free use of the hotel's gym and swimming pool for the whole year.
The LaSpa is launching a special summer promotion, including a free treatment and three visits to the gym and swimming pool if you purchase six treatments. Purchase 12 treatments and you receive four free treatments and 12 free visits to the gym and swimming pool.