SaunaScape

The CBC reports of a new law just passed in China: The “Female Sauna Safety

Bath non-users at a Spa in Shanghai. Photo by Thomas Tribe on Flickr

Regulation.” According to their report:

Last month, certain inspectors informed western hotels, which offer luxurious spa and sauna services, that women were no longer allowed to take baths.

Showers? No problem. Baths? No way.

Officials explained that once a month women are afflicted with a certain bodily metamorphosis that could result in “undesired excretions.”

The rules, instituted as China prepares to celebrate its 60th birthday, are seen by the author as the old ways of New China. Other newly established regulations include license requirements for fresh squeezed orange juice, and a prohibition on showing any western news in a public area of a hotel. Keep in mind that TVs on exercise equipment in a public gym are included in this regulation.

[CBC News]

Since we started this site, we’ve been building a database of saunas throughout the world. We’ve been looking for a way to share them with you, and had never found an easy way that met our goals.

Until now that is. Thanks to the excellent Pods plugin for WordPress, we’re now able to share more of this information with you.

We’ve added Find a Sauna to our menu.  As of today, our database is pretty light, with only 7 entries, but our goal is to continue loading them slowly until our full listing is available for you to enjoy.

We’ll call this a public beta. It’s far from done yet, and there are still a lot of tasks that we’d like to do on this before calling it “done.” However, we think that you can get some value from this, even in its rough state.

Of course, if you have a favorite sauna, please use our Submit a Sauna link to let us know about it.

Are you looking to build your own sauna? Are you an aspiring mason? Do you have a bunch of logs laying around your property?

If the answer to all these questions is a resounding “Yes!” then the workshop for you is taking place between Rochester and Buffalo NY later this month.

The Cordwood Sauna Workshop is scheduled for September 26-27 in Elba, NY. Tuition is $200. For more information, you can download their brochure [PDF]

If you can’t attend, but are interested in these techniques, you can read the article from the December / January 2000 Mother Earth News where this picture was taken. It is also available in book form: Sauna: A complete guide to the Construction, Use, and Benefits of the Finnish Bath. The author, Rob Roy, runs the Earthwood Building School, which offers seminars worldwide about these techniques.

Additional information about cordwood masonry and other natural building methods is available at Rochester Green Living.

[Rochester City Newspaper] via Google News

Have you ever thought of opening your own sauna business? Do you live in the LA Area? Then BizQuest has the opportunity for you.

They have a 4000 sq. foot Women-only sauna business for sale in the LA area for the low-low price of $320,000! Troubling though that the current owners invested $1,000,000 in the business, and can only generate $60,000 in cash flow.

Syndicated travel columnist Christopher Elliott interviews Erich Schuttauf, executive director of the American Association of Nude Recreation today.

In it, they talk about the AANR’s newest PR term: The Nakation™:

A nakation is a vacation you will want to brag to friends about. I love the term chiefly because it’s so much fun. Anyone who has ever gone skinny-dipping or as a kid romped through the back yard sprinkler in their birthday suit knows. Nude recreation is fun.

This sounds like a good poll question:
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