Yin and Yang: Balance in the city

Grant Thatcher, an author and stylish British ex-pat who’s lived in Hong Kong for years and is perhaps best-known for his hip insider’s Luxe City Guides, notes that Hong Kong has long been a hotbed for shopping, nightlife, and style but has never quite earned wings as a wellness destination. “That’s starting to change,” he tells me over lunch one day at the private and trendy Kee club (to which Peninsula guests are privy and where original Picassos grace the walls). “The Grand Hyatt, Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, and now, The Peninsula — have changed the way spas and wellness are perceived here.”

Wellness was, indeed, part of the vision in transforming The Peninsula’s former small, seven-treatment-room spa into the city’s most luxurious, spacious, and calming oasis. “We were late to enter the spa game,” says general manager Ian Coughlan. “We waited and watched; there’s so much happening with spas, particularly in Asia, but we wanted to do something classic. The Peninsula is a celebration hotel -- guests come to honor weddings, anniversaries, milestones in their lives. We wanted to create a spa that was comfortable, luxurious, and classic and that celebrated well-being.” Now under the masterful hands of Susan Harmsworth’s Espa, this 14-room Peninsula flagship spa spans three floors and fuses traditional Chinese elements like rosewood and bamboo with modern granite and chocolate travertine marble.

The Peninsula’s wellness focus is not confined to this new flagship spa in Hong Kong, according to Coughlan. By the end of 2007, the Peninsula Wellness concept will be in place at the New York, Chicago, Beverly Hills, Beijing, Bangkok, and Tokyo properties. Components include Simply Peninsula spa shampoos, soaps, and candles made from ginger lily and nutmeg; Naturally Peninsula, a restaurant and in-room menu of fresh, organic, and light offerings; along with The Peninsula Academy, mini cultural immersions in local healing arts that will vary according to each city (e.g., The Peninsula Hong Kong offers tai chi, feng shui, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and astrology; The Peninsula Chicago centers on Peyow Pilates, an American invention that brings Pilates into the pool).

The wellness concept, I find, extends effortlessly from spa to private room. After outdoor tai chi with master Raymond Chiu, who says the practice “opens you up, balances your body and mind, and keeps you happy and relaxed,” I attend a traditional tea ceremony, then meet with herbalist Troy Sing, “the cat’s pajamas” (according to Thatcher) of Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture (both Academy offerings), before slipping back into the spa for yet another round of the steam-sauna circuit.

I return to my corner room overlooking the harbor just in time to settle into a sunken tub and watch the 8 p.m. fantasia of color and laser lights jumping off the city’s famous skyline. My sauna friend is right; the show is amazing -- and surprisingly long. When it ends more than 20 minutes later, I snuggle into a comfy robe, flip the movie channel to Suzie Wong (for more Hong Kong immersion), and peruse the Naturally Peninsula (marked with an NP) items on my room-service menu -- organic Indian basil and ginger teas; long-grain brown rice risotto; cod fillet simmered in miso broth -- ultimately ordering the egg-white frittata with spinach because my jet-lagged body is still not completely convinced it’s nighttime.

Although NP offerings are light, they’re not about calorie-counting or deprivation, says executive chef Florian Trento, a Switzerland native who’s been with The Peninsula Hong Kong for two decades. “More and more travelers are expressing a desire to eat as healthily on the road as they do at home,” he says. “In our Naturally Peninsula dishes, we minimize fat, butter, and cream and use olive and flaxseed oils instead. Breads, croissants, and pastas are available in whole wheat, and we source our produce whenever possible from local organic farms.”

Trento introduced his specially created NP menu (including vegetarian, lactose-free, and low-carb offerings) both in-room and poolside, before adding options at Spring Moon, the hotel’s 1920s-style Cantonese restaurant. In November, a cookbook, aptly named Naturally Peninsula -- Flavours, was published featuring healthy recipes from Trento and fellow Peninsula chefs worldwide, who are also busy rolling out NP menus.

Although every Peninsula spa and wellness program is different, each shares common threads with its Hong Kong cousin: the same “door gods,” white-capped bellmen, and (with the exception of Beverly Hills) Espa treatments, airy fabrics, Clodagh beds, and even views. (The Peninsula New York’s spa is soon moving to the rooftop, while Bangkok’s stunning new three-story spa with 18 silk-walled treatment rooms features a relaxation room overlooking the Chao Phraya River.)

But the deepest connection comes in Peninsula spas’ focus on balance -- something I truly appreciate during my Hong Kong stay. “Taoists believe the universe is a unified whole comprised of two opposing, yet complementary, forces: yin and yang,” says Coughlan. “When either one -- yin or yang -- predominates, the other shrinks and must assert itself to restore balance.” In Hong Kong certainly, my balance comes in escaping the city’s frenzied yang streets and retreating into the soulful oasis of yin calm that the spa (and its glass sauna and nurturing treatments) provides. It’s here, towering stories above the dashing crowds, neon lights, and wafting scent of roast duck that I find the magic formula for balance in the city.

Spa Magazine  portrays the full-depth of the spa experience and ways to live it every day. Dedicated to providing the information and inspiration needed to pursue health of body and mind, Spa Magazine  presents a contemporary view of spas worldwide. © 2006 World Publications, LLC

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