I am Botanist and learn TCM to become natural healer in Germany. In winter 2003/2004 I stayed at the Medical College in Huaihua for three months. The following are some impressions on my experience:

Huaihua is a small town (300 000 inhabitants) in the province Hunan in the South of China. The city has developed very fast the last years, it is not a so beautiful city but very interesting and friendly. Modern life meets traditional style of life, modern internet cafes and shopping centers, street restaurants, small workshops, women from the surrounding villages carrying fresh vegetables (fantastic quality) to the street restaurants, big incredible colorful markets. As there is no industry the air is clean. In the town there are many restaurants (simple street restaurants as well as places with sophisticated kitchen) and you can eat fantastically. The costs for life are very low.

The Medical College offers education for about 5000 students learning all kind of professions belonging to medicine like western doctors, TCM doctors, nurses, midwifes. The instructions in TCM for foreigners take place in a clinic associated with the college. This clinic is specialized on TCM, the doctors of the clinic know western medicine but concentrate themselves on TCM, so it is a wonderful place for everybody who wants to learn TCM. In the clinic work experienced doctors, young doctors who still continue their studies and students.

When I arrived in Huaihua the doctors asked me what I want to learn and according to my wishes they made an individual plan for teaching me acupuncture, tuina and herbs. A part of the teaching was theory, but most time I practiced tuina, acupuncture or looked at the treatment of patients. Theory and new techniques were explained by experienced doctors, the training of tuina and acupuncture was accompanied by young doctors or students. All the time I had direct feedback about this training. The teaching always followed my progress of learning. All the time I had the feeling that my teachers want to show, to teach me all their knowledge and experience. For me this mixture of theory, intense training, the surroundings of clinical practice and the enthusiasm of my teachers was optimal for learning. After three months I had learned much more than I had ever imagined myself before. It is difficult to describe three month of intense and wonderful experience in few lines, thus I tell some remarkable points:

+ The philosophy of teaching: TCM is a great cultural heritage that belongs to everybody in the world. TCM is the scientific result of thousands years of experience and its theory and practice can be explained clear and  understandable.

+ The philosophy of practicing TCM: 1) the patient shall feel comfortable, 2) the doctor shall feel comfortable, 3) the movements shall be beautiful.

+ For practicing TCM on a high level, it is necessary to study very hard and to be in good physical condition. To become a good practitioner in tuina and acupuncture, it is necessary to practice regularly qigong. Qigong has a very good effect even on the doctors health.

+ The patients in the clinic are treated with great attention. For diagnosis and treatment every patient gets the enough time necessary. During the months I spent at the clinic, every (!!!) patient was treated successfully. For me it was very astonishing to see that TCM, the use of acupuncture, tuina and herbs, can be practiced on such a high level. And independent from TCM, I liked very much to see how friendly the patients has been treated. Many patients came with any kind of pain syndrome of the locomotors system, but the spectrum of treated illnesses reached from complicated internal diseases to simple cough:

Just 3 examples of all the patients:

-         a 60 year old man after a slight stroke could not move his tongue any more. After one quite bloody acupuncture treatment he could speak again, after the second treatment the bodies functions were nearly at normal state;

-          a 3 year old girl, mentally and physically handicapped, with strong pain when moving and very reduced or no reaction when trying to communicate. After two months of nearly daily children-tuina and acupuncture treatment the pains were gone, the girl enjoyed to communicate and even spoke a first word;

-         a 40 year old man from Italy with multiple organ damage (lungs, kidney, liver), chronic sinusitis, chronic pains of tendons, exhaustion when walking for few minutes. This man had been looking in Europe and the U.S.A. for more than 10 years without success for a doctor to help him and arrived at the clinic quite desperate. After 20 days of treatment with herbs, tuina and acupuncture, the patient felt much better and  stronger, the biggest problems damaging life quality had vanished, and qigong-exercises should help not to fall back to the condition of illness.

+ Patients are treated individually. For me it was very impressive to see that the same disease according to Western medicine in diagnosis following TCM has as many different patterns as different patients. I was discussing very much the question of diagnosis and differentiated treatments with my teachers. To get answers to these questions was one of the most important parts of the teaching program.

Thus only some impressions. I hope that the courageous project of offering teaching TCM  in English language at Huaihua Medical College continues successfully and that many people have the possibility to profit from this project.

Dr. Bernhard Marbach

Salzburg, Austria

March 2004