The Beijing Red Cross Traditional Medical Exchange Center, also known as the Beijing Institute, has scheduled a two-week training program for licensed acupuncturists, massage therapists, chiropractors, and other health care providers and their families. The trip will begin on May 15th, arriving in Beijing, and will depart Beijing on May 29th.
The Beijing Institute, under the direction of Dr. Wan Sujian, is part of the Beijing Red Cross Society and the Beijing Public Health Department, and is also a restorative hospital that utilizes traditional Chinese medicine in its treatment approach to the health care needs of the local population and villages. For years, groups of health care professionals have studied with the Beijing Institute, training and receiving certification in the various aspects of traditional Chinese medicine.
The training program is especially useful to practitioners, as the emphasis is on qigong and tuina hand techniques used to stimulate proper energy flow in the meridians. The institute performs medical work in the field, and the visiting doctors are asked to help by adjusting patients who rely on the government to provide health care.
In the past, when traveling with groups of health care professionals, we have treated entire villages. The trip this May includes a trip to an "orphanage village," where the villagers have received and raised disabled orphans for decades. The Beijing Institute, working together with the orphanage, visits periodically to treat the children and also has set up a training program in which the children who are able are educated in TCM so that one day they can become doctors in the Chinese public health system.
The trip scheduled for the American group will include about two days of Red Cross mission work. The rest of the time, we will be touring three cities: Beijing, Datong and Chengde, where we will visit points of interest, experience Chinese culture and marvel at the natural wonders of the country. The trip also includes an extensive training program for the doctors and interested students in which participants are given daily treatments, including medicinal foot baths, followed by full-body tuina and qigong treatments. Doctors are instructed in theory and hand techniques; led through group exercise and meditation to improve the health and skills of the doctor; and given certification at the end of the program. The author has spent many vacations visiting Dr. Wan and his staff, and the hand techniques they teach have had a great effect on improving my own soft tissue manipulations.
The trip will be a vacation for the doctors and their families, as we travel and stay in excellent accommodations; enjoy local cuisines and cultural shows; visit mountains and temples; attend banquets; meet other health care professionals; and share ideas. Over the years and every year during the milder months, groups of doctors, students and patients from the U.S., Europe and Japan visit the Beijing Institute to travel through China, receive training and treatments, and enjoy stimulating and interesting vacations.
Those who have not yet visited China may be surprised at the quality of the Chinese travel and tourism industry. While traveling with the institute we will enjoy the privileges of being with a medical group affiliated with the government, which provides us with access and ease of travel as well as security. Dr. Wan is a retired four-star general in the Chinese army. He is also an internationally-known lecturer on traditional Chinese medicine, and was recently featured in a PBS documentary about qigong masters and TCM healing methods.
The trip in May 2003 is open to interested doctors and students. As the U.S. group leader, if you would like more information, including complete travel itinerary and cost, please contact me at the address below.
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