China 2

My first week in Hangzhou went quite well.
In the hospital,

we do 2 rotations a day, observing in one of the departments around the hospital: e.g. the outpatient acupuncture clinic, the inpatient acupuncture clinic, and herbal clinics in which doctors see people under specialties--Bi syndrome, respiratory, diabetes, endocrine, etc.
The treatment conditions here are very different to say the least. The outpatient clinic makes a joke of OSHA and the privacy many take for granted in our medical system. People line up at the door before it opens and then flood in looking to get one of the beds.

Acupuncture is no big deal. People sit around in chairs with needles in, moxa rolls going, heat lamps ablaize, talking to each other or reading the paper. People listen in on and observe others' treatment all the time.

It is so nonchalant that one time an older guy who was obviously a regular walks over to a doc doing a treatment and says something to the effect of--'come on treat me now', to which the dr. replies 'OH go sit down, I'll get to you soon enough!', as though no big deal.
Treatments can be real fast. I shadowed the head of the dept. who saw easily 20 people in 30 minutes, then did 2 more rounds of that before the shift was through. They do a lot of what they call abdominal acupuncture or turtle acupuncture here. What is said to be a microsystem on the abdomen that can treat diseases of the whole body. They say they get great results with it.
So far paralysis is quite common--maybe %50. To confirm what we hear in the states, they do quite aggressive needling, all free hand, mostly tolerated well by patients--although they definitely do wince at times. (pics to come later)
For herbal clinic, I've been following who is supposed to be a famous, national level herbal Dr. He specializes in rheumatic diseases, although people come to him for other stuff too. During the 8-12pm shift, there is pretty much constantly a crowd of people pushed up next to his desk, waiting in line, listening in and watching what's going on. They are so very much there that one time when the doc was repeating to a patient that he must take his insulin, an onlooker yells something to the effect of "listen to the Dr, take your insulin, let's go!".


A translator I had for Bi syndrome/rhuematology herbal clinic took a few of us to the mountains of Hangzhou. quite nice. They do real well to keep things up here in Hangzhou--one of the more tourist friendly places in china.
West lake tea terraces

A sculpture depicting the story of the two tigers who brought the monk to the spring. Now a site for sacred water called the 'tiger spring'.

Went to the TCM Museum here in Hangzhou. Was mostly herbal focused, with a room of a thousand samples, recounting the origin and development of herbal medicine in china. Interesting, but I was hoping for something on acupuncture.
In the herbal dispensary/shop at the front of the museum was this 200,000RMB (apx 23,000$US) ginseng. Far more expensive than any potential therapeutic value I reckon.

Be forewarned!

Some grinders for making powder. Looks like they could have doubled as a prostration device.