A Week in Review

The past week was crazy and I was unable to find the time (or energy) to sit down and write this post.

At CAU, we were able to apply the information we gained from Dr. Liu during the first week and actually insert needles into a demonstration donkey and dog.  Veterinary acupuncture was first developed to solve the illnesses found in horses.  Ancient China, horses were very important because they were used as both work animals on farms and as calvary in war. In recent years however the horse has been replaced by cattle for farm work.  To practice the equine acupuncture points, a donkey was used.  I actually enjoyed having a donkey as a stand-in because it was actually "my size".  I don't think I will be able to treat a horse with needles unless I have a step stool to give me the height I need ;-)  The donkey's skin was so tough to penetrate with the needles that it was frustrating that I wasn't sure if this was for me.  One of the professors traveling with us stated that horse skin isn't that hard.

The next day, we learned the acupuncture points of the dog and were able to practice with a medium sized dog.  It was interesting how the veterinary professors at CAU interacted with this dog.  The culture of caring for dogs in China is very different from the US.  They are just beginning to consider dogs as "part of the family".  Many of the dogs, we saw while walking around the city were "owned" but were free-roaming. Applying the needles to the dog was a lot easier than the donkey and it made me feel accomplished that I can go back home and apply what I have learned.

Last day of class we learned about the use of massage as a preventative medicine.  The presenting professor began massaging her own cat as a kitten and the cat lived to be 24.  Many of the locations of massage are over a region of acupuncture points and she stated that the exact location is not as important as being thorough with each session.  I think this could easily be added to the the discharge protocols for many patients and will help enhance the human animal bond.

Along with class I traveled all over Beijing during my last week.  We visited the Olympic Park from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  It was really cool to visit the site of Michael Phelps amazing medal run and see the Bird's Nest and Water Cube up close.  One of my favorite parts was the wall of Olympians; they had every medal winner's name carved into a wall including those in the Para-Olympics.  I was also able to finally have Beijing Duck.  Everyone in class had talked about the city's iconic food but every time I tried to find a restaurant I was thwarted with poor directions, terrible weather, or lack of time.  I was finally able to enjoy it at the Olympic Village Roast Duck Restaurant and it was worth the wait.


Our last weekend, we traveled to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors.  We traveled as a small group and took the slow overnight train to Xi'an.  The train ride was actually very comfortable.  The four of us had a small cabin and we were able to sleep as we traveled the 12 hours from Beijing to Xi'an.  When we arrived in Xi'an, our tour guide met us at the train station and we were off.  The warriors were amazing to see.  The site was discovered by a local farmer while he was digging a well on his property.  To stand at the front of the first Pit that was excavated was breath taking.  Only a small portion of the warriors have been fully excavated and restored and the rest are waiting to be removed by the archaeologists.  For me this was similar to when I visited Pompeii and the archaeologists were still in the process of finding new artifacts and learning new things about a site that is hundreds of years old.

My last day in Beijing was a day of accomplishment.  Kat and I were able to navigate the subway and bus
system to visit the Harley-Davidson Store and Central Perk.   The coffee was good and the continuous loop of Friends re-runs made me feel like I was back in the US.

With my trip over and safely back in the land where pedestrians have the right of way, I am glad that I was able to participate in this adventure.  My other trips abroad have been "easy" compared to this one.  My first travels were with my family and it was easy to allow them to figure it all out.  My first trip solo was to a country that spoke my first language and it was easy to ask directions and get help.  Traveling to China with a completely different language and alphabet made me expand my horizons and become a global citizen. (wow that sounds cheesy)

(Getting a nifty certificate at the end didn't hurt either)

China Update

I am having so much fun here.  We have been super busy so I haven't been able to update in a while.  Last week, we finished up the theory behind TCVM and over the weekend we had our sight-seeing tour of Beijing.

The first day we traveled through Beijing and learned the history of China's Dynasties.  We visited the World Heritage Site of the Summer Palace outside of Beijing.  This Palace was built as a gift to the emperor's mother and includes a 2.2 square kilometer man-made lake and the Long Corridor that is over 700 meters long.  We also visited the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.  Both of these sites are within the city of Beijing and are continuously being restored.  The amazing bard of the two sites is though Beijing has had earthquakes that have toppled the majority of the city's high-rises at some point, the Temple of Heaven have never been destroyed by an earthquake.  This is because the completely wooden structure "sits" on the surface of the earth and is not cemented in place.  When an earthquake occurs the building shakes like a table on each of its leg instead of breaking apart.  We finished the day at Tienanmen Square which is the location of Mao's speeches and the only public square in the world that can fit 600,000 people.

The second day I was able to check off another Wonder of the World off of my bucket list.  I climbed the Great wall of China.  It was not what I thought it would be.  The section that we traveled was mostly unrestored, so that means we were going up and down inclines without handrails, with the rocks sliding underfoot, crumbling stairs and an outstanding view of the mountain sides.  On top of the already perilous wall, Mother Nature decided to give us the extra challenge of rain.  It rained from beginning to end creating a now slick, surface to walk on.  he scariest part of the entire section was the stair leaving the "Flowers Tower".  This descent had an incline of 78 degrees and no hand railings.  In the end I would not have missed it for anything. 

This week we have been learning the specific acupoints of the horse and got to actually use this knowledge on our demonstration donkey.  The donkey did pretty well until the last couple of minutes when he had enough of us poking him.  

I will try to update a couple more times this week as I am able.

2556-Long Corridor

2758-Temple of Heaven

2813-Great Wall

Day 1 of Class

Day 1 of Class:
Chinese Agricultural University is a few stops down the road from our hotel.  It's a little too far to walk so we have to take the bus. Not an easy thing to do with 19 Americans during rush hour in Beijing.  From exploring the city I have found it is very inconsistent with whether the directional and stop names are given in both Chinese characters and English characters or just Chinese. The hardest part of moving us from point A to point B is making sure we get off at the right stop.

Our first day of class focused on the theory and history behind Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine.  The history goes back so far that is is incredible to think that it has continued till today with very little change. Dr. Liu gave us a tour of his teaching hospital and showed us over 2,000 different herbs that are used in common remedies. Herbal medicine in China can include plant, animal, or mineral; so along with ginseng root and lotus flower, there was also cicada shells, garter snake, stink bugs and gypsum stone.  This definitely gives a new perspective to the herbal remedies at the clinic.

Day 2:
Today we learned about Yin, Yang and the Five Elements that are the basis of Chinese Traditional Medicine.  The Chinese believe that everything belongs to either the yin (female, dark, static, cool) or the yang (male, light, dynamic, hot). By classifying the world this way, they would describe disease as either an excess or deficiency causing the body to shift out of balance.  So to treat a disease you would need to correct the imbalance and to do that they use the theory of the five elements.  They believe that the everything in the world is made of the native elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.  The elements are normally arranged in a circle where the preceding element supports the following in a mother-son relationship.  For example, water supports wood (plants growing) while wood supports fire.  Along those lines there is also a grandparent-child relationship that controls an element and decreases. For example, water controls fire (by putting it out) and fire controls metal (by melting it down). By supporting an element, the Chinese were able to treat diseases.

After class, my roommate, Kat, and I decided to wander through the Houhai district of Beijing.  This area was originally a hung but has now been turned into a tourist area filled with coffee shops and restaurants.  There were a ton of outdoor venders that I did some (bad) bartering with but had a blast.  The Ada surrounds a lake and has a few bridges that span the water making it a beautiful place to visit. 

Day 3:
This morning we had class and began to learn the meridians and acupuncture points used in veterinary medicine.  It is great learning from Dr. Liu because we are not only learning the points but the history and the stories behind the points (and sometimes the funny stories of his classmates or fellow practitioners).  We also learned about the different types of acupuncture, some which I had never heard of before.  The main form of acupuncture in the United States is filliform acupuncture.  This forms uses is very thin needles to stimulate the points along the animal and can be left in for 10-30 minutes.  In China, this method is used along with, round-sharp needles, three-edged needles and wide needles for blood-letting, fire needles and hollow needles.  Each of the needle types have an indication of when to use them.  We also learned about the different methods of inserting needles.
After class, Kat, Kristen, Phillip and I traveled to the Qianmen Cultural District to explore the area.  We kinda played it by ear, so I have no idea what I actually saw there.  It seemed to be an older street that was recently renovated to look new-old.  Many of the shops there were western shops like H&M or Lacoste.  We found a small candy shop (or at least that is what we were assuming) and browsed through the many different candies.  Halfway through our browsing, one of the shop girls started to help us pick out the candies that she thought were good since we seemed be completely lost.  We started taste-testing each of the candies as we walked through the district and we realized, what we consider candy, is not what everyone in the world considers candy.  It was definitely an interesting trip trying to determine how to eat each of the candies and what they were supposed to taste like.  I tried all of the different types that were bought but I think I'm going to stick with my Snickers.

Day 1

My feet hurt is the understatement of the century.

We walked around Beijing today to sight see and help to get over jet lag.  We braved the subway system with our amazing host student Hu.  Each subway ticket is read by a RF reader on the way in and on the way out you place it into a slot to take it back.  This system is really cool since it recycles the card as you leave and it can then be used again by another patron.

Our first adventure was through Tanggong Hutong. A hutong is a narrow street or alleyway between homes.  They were initially spacious residences of officials that decorated the doors and roof tiles according to their rank but now they have become more run down due to years and the availability of modern living spaces.  Many have been torn down but many are now protected by the government to save the cultural heritage.  While we explored our guide explained how to tell the gender of the stone lions that littered throughout Beijing: Male lions have their paw crushing a ball, while Females have their paw on a cub and a ball in their mouth.  The ball has to be carved inside and shows the talent of the carver.

Our next stop was the drum and bell towers.  The towers were used to signal time throughout the city.  We were able to catch the end of a drum show and get a view of the Beijing skyline from the balcony (albeit there was a bit a smog).  The Bell Tower sits just North and houses an enormous bell that used to be rung throughout the day marking time, but is now only rung once a year during their Spring Festival.  The steps up to the bell and drums were STEEP.  The stairs were also uneven and this was to deter enemies from storming the top levels.  

We visited the Yong He Gong Lama Temple.  This temple was built within the a palace complex and each building had different Buddhas.  The statues were huge and gorgeous.  Each temple building had altars for gifts and there were practitioners offering incense at each altar.

Our last stop during our tour was Bei Hai Park, a large Chinese garden.  It was built to imitate multiple regions of China and has a large lake and yet more steep uneven stairs to the White Temple pagoda.  Each temple we visited was gorgeously made.  This is also the location of the Nine Dragon Wall.   Which is the only wall ever found with 9 dragons on each side and smaller dragons linking around the outside totaling over 600 dragons on this single wall.  

The food here is AMAZING!!  Our host students have been fantastic about helping us order food and all of our meals have been family style with a lazy susan in the center to share.  It has been a great trying new food and learning to become competent with chop sticks. 

Best part of the day: I spent about 200 Yuan or $32.58

~Katie