Just a few of the many words for ‘pain’ in Chinese:

疼
Téng
pain, ache, or sore

OR there is:

痛
Tòng
pain, ache, sorrow, sadness

As well as,

痠
Suān
ache in limbs, pain, pang

I  was introduced to the word pain here in China as a ‘warning’ word for my first foot massage. “If it hurts too much, just say ‘tong’.“, a friend told me. Sounded easy enough to me. Finally, a word I could pronounce and one I just might remember. (Take that Chinese tones!)  So I set off in the direction of a recommended foot massage location, armed and ready with my one word should I need it. Turns out I didn’t need the word ‘tong’, or any of the words for pain at all. (Which is a good thing as the way I pronounced it varied in translation from ‘offensive’ to ‘soup’) Like in so many situations I have found here in Shanghai the universal, ‘OK’, worked just fine as a question, as well as an answer. OK?

(Words, characters and translations compliments of Google translate…I have found that this translation service, as well as others, might steer you in the right direction, sometimes. However, most likely in this particular situation, you’ll just get some offensive soup.)