This years boom industry in Yangshuo is "kissing fish spas" - those places where you plunge your feet into a fish tank and the little fishes nibble at your toes.
I have no idea why they are so popular here - there seems to be a new one every day and there are at least twenty on or near West Street - but they have raised a language question in my mind.

All of them have a Chinese name in Chinese characters followed by the words "kissing fish spa". I wonder how many customers they would get if instead of "kissing fish spas" they called them what they really are - "biting fish spas".

Gotta love the art of euphemism.

In the south of India once, my friends and I waded into some country river, and some little fish started bumping into our feet, and it was a most delightful feeling, especially if you watched them and felt them doing it. Almost everything is euphemism when it comes to advertising, unless you're talking about the competition's product.

Wow, I've not heard of these before, though I see there is already some caution about them.

Walking around I found seven more...

Interesting how popular they are there. Here is a story about one trying to open in Phoenix. Apparently they are outlawed in several states, though I think there is one in Illinois ( Aurora).