LIGHT TOUCH: A TCM doctor diagnoses a patient by feeling the pulse (WEI YAO)

"No matter what the prescriptions are, they just serve as the auxiliary method. The best way is still to improve the physical condition or immunity--a word from Western medicine," said Hao.

Progress of TCM

TCM, with fewer side effects and the use of natural materials, over the last few years has been gaining greater and greater popularity around China and the world. In China, quite a few bestsellers are books focusing on TCM.

"It is a very good phenomenon," said Deng. "After TCM was regarded as the old system to be thrown away in the early 20thcentury, it fell out of popular culture for a long time. Now more and more people are making efforts to pick it up. It is very good for the development of TCM."

Meanwhile, Deng also voiced concerns over the quality of these books. "Since many people don't know much about TCM, unqualified writers will surely mislead readers."

Xu Shulin, a TCM doctor at Beijing's Xiyuan Hospital, echoed those sentiments. "Some writers give people prescriptions and encourage them to rely on those instead of doctors to treat diseases. One writer even encourages people to eat raw loaches. That is total nonsense. It will surely lead to a stomach ache," Xu said.

"Sometimes when people hold prejudices against TCM, it is not because something is wrong with TCM. Many people, even those working in this field, don't have a deep understanding of the subject," said Ren Zhuang, a journalist at China News of TCM." Many people regard some aspects of TCM, such as yin and yang and meridians, as being so obscure and invisible that they are not as accurate as Western medicine. It takes some time to be accepted."