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.