General Health

Playing it Safe in Beijing

"Three years in Beijing. Three years here, and you can really get sick," a French sales manager told me over sips of Australian wine amid the relative opulence of the Capital Club. He is right, but there is much you can do to reduce the risks of living in this city.

4-1/2 Weeks in Hospital

If you become a victim of a traffic accident as a foreigner in Beijing, what can you do? A designer from Hong Kong had this experience in April. His memorable experience offers a clue of how to deal with the situation.

Philosophy and Health

Chinese or Western, health is health anywhere, although the East fascinates the West and the West convinces the East.

So what is the secret of each one?
How can traditional Chinese medicine or eastern medicine in general, seduce thousands of western practitioners around the world, while other thousands of eastern practitioners are looking forward to becoming more western-minded in their practice and understanding of what is meant by health and disease?

Yunnan Baiyao

At the turn of the century, Mr. Qu Huanzhang , a practitioner of Chinese medicine who came from Jiangchuan County in Yunnan Province, set out to walk every inch of land in Yunnan, tasting thousands of kinds of herbal medicines. In 1902 he formulated the seemingly magical medicine "Qu Huanzhang Panacea", which is now known as "Yunnan baiyao". It has enjoyed a steadily increasing reputation ever since. It is a multipurpose remedy specially used to stanch blood, invigorate blood circulation, extravagate blood elimination and remove postludes. It has been proven to have a great curative effect on internal organs and their malfunctions, such as pulmonary tuberculosis bleeding, gastric hemorrhage, intestinal bleeding, internal cranium bleeding, gynaecological blood disease and purpura. It also seems to remit and alleviate certain cancers, prolonging the patient's life and causing the drug to be regarded as an elixir of life.


Traditional Chinese Medicine: Mind Over Matter

Traditional Chinese medicine increasingly exercises a powerful hold on Western minds.
Vague notions of organic, holistic treatments that achieve miraculous cures beyond the reach of Western science feed a popular belief in traditional cures providing a viable alternative to the prescriptions of a widely mistrusted medical establishment. In China, too, traditional medicine is widely seen as a more useful weapon against illness than Western.

Just For Fun: Free Yin/Yang Health Assessment Quiz.