Studying Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine

[rathi]

I have an interest in studying acupuncture and herbal medicine. do you know which unuversity served the best? and how much it cost? does anyone know anything about living in china(the culture, the cost of living, etc)?. thank you

[jimmychua1981]

you can study chinese medcine or accupuncture in most cities in china. most will have universities teaching it. chinese medcine is a 5 year degree i think and accupuncture is 4 but i'm not totally sure.

universities will take on any foreigner really- their just interested in the cash. but you really should speak fluent chinese before you start the course as it is very difficult subject obviously and alot of the language is very complex and ancient.

tutition fees vary alot i think, but are probably around $4000US a year, and living costs in china are about $3-4000 a year for a typical foreigner.

If i were you i would go to china and study chinese for a year to see if you like it and want to pursure it further. if you do like it, study for at least one more year before starting any medical training.

[quanxie]

The previous poster has given you good advice about trying before you buy.

There are 30+ institutions here in China that offer a bachelors degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Twenty two of them have permission to enroll foreign students. You must be able to pass the HSK test for Chinese language level 4 to 6. They offer many different majors ranging from Acupuncture to Surgery. There is no major that teaches you to be comprehensive doctor of TCM anymore, they have dissected the medicine into specialties just like the study of Bio medicine. The quality and quantity of TCM taught here is lacking in many ways, especially the practical portion learned during the internship in the hospital.

IMHO you are better off studying in the US, Aus, NZ, and or Canada. The use of TCM is on the rise outside of China and in a declining cycle here. Many of the good TCM teachers went abroad post 1949. Also in the last 10 years innumerable TCM books have been translated into English to help you in your learning.

If you are interested in learning Chinese herbs and you can already speak Chinese, I would suggest going to a small country side town and learning from a village doctor....

Good luck,

Phil

Any more questions feel free to PM me...