This Man Ordered Tea And You'll Never Believe What Happened Next!

It turns out, there's a lot of stuff that goes on in Chinese parks. Nice relaxing scenery? Check. Random people doing Tai Chi? Check. Older men walking around with long metal sticks and a tuning fork offering to clean your ear in what I can only describe as looking aurally reckless? Check.

This is, actually, something of a Chengdu special. Seemingly normal people go to tea houses here  to relax and sip some tea while finding it to be an opportune time to get their ears cleaned. Call me a timid foreigner if you like, but I'm not letting some random guy roaming the park shove metal sticks into my ear. No way, no how. I'm perfectly content enjoying my tea the old fashioned way - out of a cup and without a questionably hygienic metal probe digging into my ear.

A tea house patron gets a traditional Chengdu ear cleaning.