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Alright, so you’ve heard about these Shenzhen Luohu water clubs, haven’t you? Everyone’s got a story or an opinion, or they just give you that look, you know?
I figured, what the heck, I gotta see what all the fuss is about, or at least what one of these places is actually like on the inside. You hear all sorts of wild stuff, but you never know until you go yourself.
So, I decided one afternoon, yeah, I’m gonna check it out. Found a place, looked big enough from the outside. Walked in. First thing that hits you is the… well, it’s a lot. Different smells, air conditioning blasting, people walking around in those pajama-like outfits they give you.
They pointed me to a locker room, got changed. The whole process felt a bit like being herded, to be honest. Then you’re just kinda… there. Lots of different areas. Some with pools, some with hot tubs, steam rooms, saunas, rooms with rows of recliners and big TVs. It’s a maze, really.
You wanna know why I even bothered to step into a place like that? It wasn’t for some grand adventure, believe me.
My old job, man. That place was a soul-crusher. I was working for this small trading company, and my manager, a guy we called ‘Iron Wang’ behind his back, he was relentless. He thought if you weren’t at your desk by 8 AM and didn’t leave before 9 PM, you were a slacker. Weekends? What are weekends? He’d call you on a Sunday morning asking about some tiny detail on a report.
I remember this one period, we had a huge shipment coming in, and the paperwork was all messed up. For three weeks straight, I was at the office ’til midnight, sometimes later. I was living on bad coffee and those greasy noodles from the stall downstairs. My eyes were constantly bloodshot. My girlfriend at the time said I looked like a ghost. I probably did.
One day, after getting chewed out by Iron Wang for something that wasn’t even my fault, I just snapped. Not outwardly, you know, but inside. I felt this immense pressure, like my head was gonna explode. I walked out of the office, just walked. Didn’t even say where I was going.
I was wandering around Luohu, feeling completely beat down. I just needed to switch off. To go somewhere nobody knew me, where I didn’t have to think about spreadsheets or shipping manifests or Iron Wang’s scowling face. A buddy of mine had once mentioned these “water clubs” as places you could just go and disappear for a few hours, get a basic massage, sit in a quiet room, and just zone out. He said, “Don’t think about the reputation, just go for the quiet.”
So, that’s what I did. I wasn’t after anything fancy or sketchy. I literally just wanted a dark room and maybe a steam bath to sweat out the stress. I was so desperate for a mental break, I’d have paid good money to sit in an empty closet for a few hours.
And yeah, inside one of these places, it’s definitely a different world. You can see why people go. It’s an escape, for sure. I found a quiet corner in one of the lounge areas, put on some headphones, and just stared at a wall for what felt like an eternity. Best therapy I’d had in months, honestly.
After a couple of hours of just… existing, not doing, not thinking… I got up, had a shower, got dressed, and walked out. The city noise hit me again. Felt a bit like coming back from another planet.
So yeah, that’s my “practice record” for one of those Shenzhen Luohu water clubs. It’s a place. People go for all sorts of reasons, I guess. For me, it was just about escaping Iron Wang and his damn spreadsheets for an afternoon. And you know what? It kinda worked.