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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 15, 2001

Foreigners May Open Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic

Practicing traditional Chinese medicine in China will no longer be off-limits for foreigners as the country's Ministry of Public Health will permit foreigners to become licensed in the ancient medical art starting next year.

As reported, a postgraduate student from ROK will be the first foreigner in China to start up a Chinese medicine clinic.


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China to permit foreigners to become licensed in the ancient medical art

Practicing traditional Chinese medicine in China will no longer be off-limits for foreigners as the country's Ministry of Public Health will permit foreigners to become licensed in the ancient medical art starting next year.

About the first foreigner in China to open a Chinese medicine clinic

Kim Jae Yoon, a postgraduate student from the Republic of Korea (ROK), will be the first foreigner in China to start up a Chinese medicine clinic.

Coming to China at 1991, Kim has received a bachelor's degree and master's degree from Heilongjiang Traditional Chinese Medicinal University (HTCMU) in Harbin, northeast China.

He is currently working on his doctorate and preparing for the upcoming license examination for foreigners.

"With a history of thousands of years, Chinese medicine has an amazing curative effect on a variety of diseases," Kim said in fluent Chinese.

The son of a famous doctor in Seoul, Kim said that his interest in traditional Chinese medicines started when he was young.

"Traditional medicine of the ROK is actually derived from that of China," he said.

Specializing in Chinese acupuncture, message and herbal medicine treatments, Kim will be practicing out of a small building on a busy street in Harbin.

Current situation of foreigners studying traditional Chinese medicine at HTCMU

Currently, some 170 foreigners are studying traditional Chinese medicine at HTCMU, most of them from neighboring countries such as Japan, Malaysia and ROK. Only a few came are from Europe and North America, said Zhang Tianfeng, deputy dean of the International Institute of the University.

According to Zhang, since 1986, over 3,000 foreign students from 18 countries and regions have graduated from the university.



Traditional Chinese Medicine:Like a favorite family recipe, passed on from generation to generation, Chinese medical formulations have stood the test of time, and, increasingly in today's world, the test of science. Chinese herbal formulations were tried and tested by ancient medical practitioners throughout thousands of years. Today, many of these herbs are packaged and available on the shelves of your local natural products store.



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