Li He plays soccer or goes hiking in the mountains every week. Like others who play sports as a hobby and for exercise, he is dogged by physical injuries from time to time. And in most cases, the 26-year-old man resorts to TCM for help.

A TCM practitioner uses herbs to help treat hand-foot-mouth disease in Anhui in 2008 in this file photo. [Asianewsphoto]

“I like it because traditional medicine is natural and I feel more comfortable there,” he said.

Li was seriously injured when the ball hit the middle finger on his right hand. The injury caused numbness to the finger. After a scan of the injury at the hospital, his hand was put in a cast for two weeks. Li was treated at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, where he was offered western medicine. But he later turned to a TCM hospital because he disliked having his hand in cast and hoped to find a better way of healing his finger.

At the Guo Yi Tang hospital, Li received accupuncture and electrotherapy twice a week. After 10 weeks, his finger was back in action.

Later on he goes for TCM treatments like accupuncture and cupping every week to reduce muscle tension.

Another TCM fan is former Vice Premier Wu Yi, who was once also chief of China’s Ministry of Health. Wu has been a long-time TCM advocator. With her efforts, the number of TCM hospitals reached more than 3,000 in 2007 from 2,518 five years ago, and more than 90 percent of urban community health clinics and 70 percent of rural hospitals provide TCM services. And the 70-year-old has started learning TCM since her retirement this year.