TCM practioners from overseas visit the TCM museum in a Beijing hospital and a medicinal plant garden in Beijing. Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn

Foreign practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine met up with their counterparts in the country and local government officials on Friday at a seminar organized by the Beijing Tourism Development Commission and the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies.

Traditional Chinese medicines play an important role in people's lives in China, said Wang Yue, deputy director of the tourism body.

"We really hope to turn our TCM resources into products through travel and enable more tourists to experience them," Wang said at the seminar.

Several practitioners from the United States, Germany, Russia, Spain, Japan and South Korea said that adding TCM elements to existing travel resources with China would add value to tourists’ experiences. Many foreign attendees of the seminar said that Beijing municipal authorities have already developed such tourism products.

There are 29 facilities in the city, including at Dongzhimen Hospital, where such medicines are cultured and their use demonstrated.