As we all know most western food is not real food any more - it is more like food-like-stuff. So now we call real food organic food and the rest is food-like-stuff.


Similarly the medicine that was practiced in China for thousands of years is now called Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) after western medicine made inroads into Chinese main-stream.


TCM is inseparable from the Daoist philosophy - some of the core concepts of TCM such as the concept of Qi (气/氣) (life energy in TCM, outside of TCM Qi is a cosmological concept with very wide field of meaning) have been around probably more than 2500 years.


Some popular TCM herbal formulas have been in use for hundreds of years.


TCM is well established corpus of theoretical concepts and practical application which undoubtedly can benefit in many real-life situations when real root-cause of the disease must be addressed.


Western medicine, on the other hand, appears to be mainly focused on the management of symptoms and treatment of acute life-threatening conditions (if someone gets badly injured in a car accident TCM won't be his first choice for medical treatment, for example).


Nowadays  China is successfully integrating TCM and western medicine in hospitals like this one in the northern part of Beijing:

During the past 20 years I visited China many times and visited many different parts of this great country. During my travels I often stepped into TCM herbal stores with TCM doctors on site and asked them to check my pulse, tongue etc and tell me if everything was ok with my health. This exercise was fun for me because I did not have any serious health problems and I enjoyed watching Chinese doctors carefully listening to my pulse searching for signs of disbalance in the functioning of my internal organs. Usually they would tell me that my kidney yin energy was deficient and later they would tell me that my liver Qi was not how it should be due to prolonged stress etc. But at that time I was young and I ignored most of the advice I got from them.


This year I traveled in China one more time but this time in the middle of summer (August of 2025) - first shock for me was Shanghai humid +35 C that feels like +45 C - I felt I would suffocate right there on the street.


After a few days things got a bit better but after one week in Shanghai in those hellish conditions we decided to visit Wudang Shan because the weather there was much more agreeable.


However on the mountains we did a lot of walking up and down those infamous Wudang Shan stairs and I felt that my body was not getting rid of the liquid properly (I notice signs of edema on my face) so we decided to look for medical advice from a Daoist doctor on the Wudangshan Mt (I already mentioned that in my previous post) and later when we came to the Wudangshan Town (武当山镇) which is at the foot of the Wudang Mt, we visited a real TCM doctor in a local hospital.


In the text below I will describe my visit to the TCM doctor in Wudangshan Town (武当山镇).


Wudangshan Town has one main road leading from the Wudang Shan ticket office all the way down to the Wudang Shan West train station. 


Maybe a kilometer from the ticket office down that main road, you will notice a very nice wide, car-free road intersecting the main road and leading to Yuxu Gong (玉虚宫), which translates to the "Jade Void Palace" or "Palace of the Jade Emperor." 

So the intersection of the main road and the street that leads to Yuxu Gong (玉虚宫) will be used as the orientation point when I give you directions in the text below.


If you head from that intersection back to the ticket office, two blocks away you will find a bus stop (on the right side of the road looking towards to direction of the ticket office) where hospital buses stop and pick up passengers and take them to the newly built hospital in Wudangshan Town. The ride to the hospital is free.

Taxi ride from here to the hospital is maybe 15RMB ($3CAD) it takes 10-15 minutes to get there, in case you do not want to wait for the bus.


So in around 15 minutes you will be in front of the Wudangshan Town hospital 

and close to the hospital entrance door you will find information regarding all doctors who work in this hospital. Three of them are TCM doctors:


I am not sure if you can pick which doctor will see you, as we just entered the hospital paid 14 RMB (I think) and the nurse receptionist booked me to see this doctor

Doctor's name was Dr. Su Ren Qiang and he left very positive impression on me. I have dealt with several TCM doctors in Vancouver, Canada in the past and I can say if a TCM doctor is asking right questions, checking right things etc.


I think Dr. Su is knowledgeable and professional, he took time to collect information (my wife was interpreting for me - Dr. Su does not speak English well enough to communicate with patients without an interpreter) and to listen to my pulse, checked my tongue, skin etc.


Finally he prescribed Chines herbal formula for me which consisted of around 20 different plants etc and interestingly enough this was the first time that those plants came as herbal powder in small plastic bags so I just had to pour boiling water over the powder, mix it, wait 10-15 minutes to cool down and I could drink it (old fashion way involves boiling TCM herbs for hours until 6 cups of water boiled down to 2 cups of thick liquid, then new 6 cups of water was added then boiled for hours again before only two cups were left again).


The TCM prescription was fairly expensive, it cost me around $100 CAD (for one week supply of herbs) and I am not sure if that was the price both for Chinese and western patients or they charged more because I do not have Chinese medical coverage. Either way I think the medication worked.


As I said earlier, visiting TCM doctor in China can be interesting learning experience for those who have never had such experience and on top of that they may help with your health condition (if you have one). 


If you visit Wudang Shan and the town nearby you can certainly check out their new hospital and ask for a TCM doctor since the hospital was practically empty and we did not wait more than 10 minutes to see the doctor.


I hope this helps!