I once limped out of a Chinese massage place in more pain then when I first went in. At the time, I had sprained ligaments in my foot from sitting too long behind my computer. To make matters worse, I walked around on that bum foot for about two weeks instead of resting and letting it heal. Here is what happened. I went in for a general massage, the TCM doctor noticed my limp, and then used Wechat's English to Chinese translation to asked if I wanted targeted therapy. The machine translation garbled it badly, and I stupidly agreed without understanding what he was intending to do. Eventually, he started scraping my foot with a piece of plastic. If that wasn't painful enough, he then started jabbing my big toe with a needle. It gets worse, he started to squeezing that toe to make me bleed. Yes, bloodletting is alive and well in traditional Chinese medicine. Had I known what he was going to do that, I would never have agreed. Obvious lesson: never let any doctor, Chinese or not, do something to you when you fully don't understand. Some people say bloodletting works, but it added about two more weeks of recovery. Yet, there are also other things to consider when you are a foreigner in China and looking to get a massage.
You have to be careful. Typically, a tourist or foreign resident should ask a Chinese person for a recommendation. But, I will explain why in a moment. However, if you are staying in a hotel that doesn't offer such services, and you are out looking without any Chinese friend to assist you, there is one thing to look for. Does the massage place employ blind people? Masseuses are commonly blind in China. So, if a place has a TCM doctor and a blind guy, it's more than likely a legit place. On the other hand, there is this.
If the place is a spa, be very leery. Like in America, some massage places in China are actually a front for prostitution. The same can be said for some hairdressing salons. Spotting these are usually not that hard. Typically, if you see a parlor with a lot of girls and and only two massage or hair dressing stations, it's actually a brothel.