At some point in these two years I took a picture of a small walkway that is full of jagged rocks sticking up. If you remember the point of this was to walk on them barefoot and if afterwards a certain part of your foot hurt, then you look at the chart that tells you which part of your body it correlates to. For example if the upper right part of your foot hurts than that means that your liver has some problem (i'm totally making this up, i have no idea which spots connect to which body part).
But I always wondered "now what?" after people do this do they think "oh this means my kidneys are bad, so i better go see a kidney doctor. And knowing what i know about the national health care system, a doctor wouldn't give you a test just based on what your foot said.
So in steps the foot massage specialist. The idea being that they massage the areas of your feet and this action alleviates the ails in the corresponding parts of your body. Technically this is not chinese medicine though, as chinese medicine treatments are covered by the national insurance, while these foot massages are not. The few of these I have seen in the city, i rarely see anybody in them. However to the north of the city is a small area that has a lot and they are always packed. I myself have never tried because in taiwan "massage" means "horrible hard pressing on sensitive parts to cause excruciating pain."
No joke, "physical therapy" in taiwan means you go twice a week for six months to a doctor who will press your injured body part with intense pressure while you scream and cry. Maybe this is why sports aren't so big here, because if anybody tore their ACL, the treatment really would be getting painful massages on your knee every week.
So if you have a foot fetish or receive enjoyment from being tortured, Taiwan is the place for you.
