The 2017 Wellness Study & Explore Tour to China

     The Unique TCM Wellness (Yang-Sheng) Study

& Explore Tour to China, 2017 

2017 中医养生学习体验之旅

Kevin W Chen, Ph.D. MPH

After attending three international conferences on medical tourism and two separate trips to China for site-visiting, I have finally put together the promised traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) Wellness Study and Explore Tour to China.  I have promised my Qigong students of such a tour for 3 years, and I am proud to design such  a unique program for them, not just for Qigong or wellness study, but for a possible life-long journey in health and self-healing.  This 2-week TCM wellness tour is designed for those who want to go close to mother-nature, study with the genuine healers and masters, and experience the TCM wellness (yang-sheng) practices in person, while enjoying the breath-taking scenery and traditional culture exploration in China.

For many of my students, this may be their first trip to China, therefore, I want to make it the once-in-a-lifetime tour with experience both in wellness knowledge/practice and impressive natural scenery with a sense of human-nature correspondence.  The highlights of our wellness tour will include:

• Classes in TCM, as well as opportunities to experience various healing techniques at the Beijing Traditional Medicine Exchange Center (featured with Daoist forms and external qigong healing)
• Visit the Chinese Medical Qigong Museum, study ancient Qigong forms with master Yan Wang in Xuzhou, plus the special training of Emotional-Soothing Therapy by Teacher Feng-yuan Bao
• Study and experience the Daoist culture & wellness practices in the Academy of Lao-zi (at the Jinhua Mountain Huang-Da-Xian ancestor temple), including morning practice, yang-sheng forms, Taiji, tea ceremony, classic Daoist works and feng-shui (environmental energy flow and balance).
• Visit and experience the TCM Medical Street in the Great Wellness Valley, Guilin, including Yao medicine (eye-diagnosis & medicinal bath), acupressure & massage, TCM hair treatment, medicinal meal, and foot reflexology.
• Tour one of the most beautiful rivers in the world by cruise, watch the impressive outdoor show in the mountain-river theater (Impression Sanjie Liu), & experience the famous Longshen hot-spring spa.

Here I would like to offer an outline and some itinerary on the main activities, training and sites of this tour, which will help readers to know more details about the tour, and decide whether this is the right tour for them this time or in the future.

Beijing: Beijing Traditional Medicine Exchange Center.

We plan to take off from Washington D.C. (or an airport near you when booking your own flight) on May 6, and arrive at Beijing, the capital of China, on May 7.  The first stop of our tour will be the Beijing Traditional Medicine Exchange Center, nestled in the mountain foothills at the Western edge of the city.  This is where we’ll stay for the first three nights, in comfortable accommodations within the Center.

Beijing Traditional Medicine Exchange Center is a healthcare and healing facility with a focus on traditional Chinese medicine and Qigong therapies. It used to be a special healing unit in the People Liberation Army to serve the military officials and emergency needs, and now an international exchange center (not affiliated with military any more) for traditional medicine and medical Qigong.  It plays an important role in training, studying and healing for various needs.  Please go to their web site to find out more details about the center ( http://wanqigong.com/en/ their English needs some help in editing. 🙂  )

The founder and chief physician of the center is Dr. Sujian Wan, who was born in a TCM family with multiple generations of doctors (his mother and daughter are both TCM doctors as well).   Dr. Wan started learning acupuncture at the age of 9, and has been well trained in Chinese medicine, martial arts, and Daoist Qigong.  He graduated from the Capital Medical College, and Beijing Military Medical School.   He is also a well-known Qigong master, featured in the documentary “Qigong – Ancient Chinese Healing for the 21st Century.”  He was elected as the vice president of the World Academical Society of Medical Qigong in 2014.   The China Today, a magazine focusing on new development in China, reported about him in 2014 (http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctchinese/society/article/2014-08/06/content_633448.htm)

The center has designed a special two-day study and experience course for our students, which will include morning wellness exercise, demonstration, Daoist wellness seminars, external Qigong therapy, Taiji monument Qigong, and Laojun Tang Lying meditation (a Daoist practice).  Each student will get an individualized TCM diagnosis, and then get healing experience in acupuncture, physical therapy, TCM foot bath, and external qi adjustment. Plus, a specially-prepared medicinal meal.  After all the exciting learning and experience, students will receive a certificate for completing the unique training at Beijing Traditional Medicine Exchange Center.

A half-day quick city tour is planned before we leave Beijing for Xuzhou on day 4.

 

Xuzhou —  A Historical City for Yang-Sheng (Wellness Practice) 

Xuzhou is historically famous for its critical geographic location in China, where the military forces always fight for due to its strategical location.  However, it is less known that Xuzhou is also a famous city in term of TCM wellness practice due to the fact that Xuzhou once was governed by the father of TCM Yang-Sheng practice, Peng-zu, the legendary figure who was said once lived almost 800 years….  (see Wikipedia description for more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peng_Zu ). The legend said that Peng-zu was once a famous royal chef who had served multiple kings during the Shang dynasty; the king appreciated him so much as to grant him Xuzhou as a gift.  Therefore, Xuzhou was once called Da-Peng (Great Peng Kingdom) in the history since Peng-zu governed it for many years.

Peng-zu was the legendary longevity symbol in Chinese history, and he was famous in three aspects of life-nurturing (Yang-Sheng) practice so as to have lived a long-long life: medicinal food (nutrition), dao-yin skills (now called Qigong), and coitus skill (sex).  I was unable to locate the expert in coitus skill at the moment, but we will definitely learn a lot about medicinal food and Qigong in Xuzhou, as the first Chinese Medical Qigong Museum will have its grand opening on March 26, 2017, which is one of the main reasons for us to visit Xuzhou.

The building hosting the Chinese Medical Qigong Museum is donated by the local government to master Yan Wang, a well-known qigong healer, so as to promote Qigong as part of local cultural and wellness attractions.  Dr. Yan  Wang was born in Xuzhou 80 years ago and was trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine and martial arts.  She has been a champion of Taiji and martial-arts practice in multiple international competitions, and is also a well-known Medical Qigong master practicing in Amsterdam (Holland), who incorporates Qigong exercises along with herbs, acupuncture and accupressure.  Here is a link to describe master Yan Wang’s recent teaching at the World Congress of Qigong in San Francisco: http://violetlitaichi.com/grandmaster-wang-yan-generously-shared-the-secret-of-how-to-return-to-youth/

Can you imagine a better way to learn medical Qigong than visiting the first museum completely devoted to the history, current status, research and development of medical Qigong?   In Xuzhou the students will have chance to learn medical qigong face-to-face with master Yan Wang (as well as other healers), and have the opportunity to do individual consultation with master Wang.  Master Yan Wang’s qigong clinic is very famous in Europe in three aspects:  Weight-losing, smoking cessation, and effective treatment of skin diseases!   She once helped the most over-weighted man in Holland, Mr. Koos, lost 70 kg in 3 months without any medicine or exercise, just Qigong guided imagery alone,  which was reported by multiple newspapers and TV stations.   She has also successfully helped thousands of cigarette-smokers to quit smoking completely with a simple Qigong form…  With about one-hour individual session of teaching (paid separately at the spot), master Wang guarantees the success in losing weight, quitting smoking and improvement of skin conditions after one session; otherwise, she will give free follow-up lessen and treatment.

In order to provide time for individual consultation with master Yan Wang, we arrange a special lecture series by Teacher Fengyuan Bao during our stay in Xuzhou.  Teacher Bao is the founder of Mind-Wisdom Medicine (which has been very famous in China), and has applied the Emotional-Soothing Therapy (EST) to help thousands of people in China.   Through years of painstaking research and study on the consciousness philosophy and quantum physics, Teacher Bao combines the Eastern philosophical wisdom and Western scientific evidence for the effective integration of Einstein energy and material conversion science theory, based on his own experience and years of clinical practices, he put forward the theoretical points of view regarding the Mind-Wisdom Energy as following: (1) In this world everything we own or experience, including wealth, marriage, health, career, and interpersonal relationships, are all the results of material and energy interaction and exchange. (2) The effect of different energy on the materials can change the properties of that material.  While the influence of human mind-wisdom determines the convergence and dispersion of human energy. Human life and fate are the results of  our mind-wisdom and energy presentation. (3) material and energy have interdependence, interaction and mutual transformation of the relationship, so to enhance the mind-wisdom energy is to create tangible materials. (4) The human mind energy comes from the ideological realm, emotional treatment, family relations and genetic four aspects of the role and impact. (5) The mood  or emotion is not only the greatest consumption of mind-wisdom energy, but also produce confusion, physical illness, interpersonal disputes, family conflicts and social problems.

It’s hard to describe the power and potential of mind-wisdom medicine and the Emotional-Soothing Therapy (EST) in this short piece, please read a recent publication by Teacher Bao on Examination of the Relationship between Emotional Disturbance and Tumors: Introduction to Emotional Soothing Therapy through Two-Case Studies of Uterine Fibroids to get the basic ideas.  For the first time, Teacher Bao will teach the EST to a group of foreign students, as you guessed, I will serve as the interpreter during the lecture.  The philosophy or slogan of Bao’s teaching is, “teach more people to help more people!”  If you are able to master the key EST skills through Bao’s training, it is more than worth the entire trip as you will become a real healer after you come back (Chinese paid over a thousand dollars to attend Teacher Bao’s training workshop).

Of course, we will visit the important tourism spots, and learn some basics of medicinal foods when we stay in Xuzhou, including a visit and relax at the famous Longshan hot-spring spa….

 

Jinhua — A Daoism-Experience Class at a famous Daoist mountain 

Have you ever dreamed of studying and practicing Daoism yang-sheng skills deeply in a mountain and with the real Daoist priests?  Here is your chance to just do that.  Jinhua mountain is a famous place for Daoist practitioners with the nickname of the 36th Cave-Heaven of Daoism.  Historically, Jinhua mountain has been a Doaist holy land for elixir refinement and cultivation.  It was said that the well-known Yellow Emperor and his teacher Nine-heaven Xuan-nv had both cultivated elixir and meditation there (that would be more than 2500 years ago).   There are actually two Daoist temples in the mountain — the Huang-da-xian Ancestor Temple and the Three-Qing Temple.  the rich Daoist practitioners in business donated and built a famous Academy of Lao-zi there to help teaching Daosim culture and practice year around in the Huang-da-xian Ancestor Temple.  We will spend three days and nights at the Academy of Lao-zi, and study with the Daoist priests.

The Huang-da-xian Ancestor Temple is the most famous Daoist palace in southern China, with a history of 1600 years, where Daoist immortal, Huang-chu-ping (黄初平) built the original temple and became immortal here.  Another Daoist ancestor immortal, master Lv-dong-bin (吕洞宾) also left many trials and stories in the mountain.  The Academy of Lao-zi offers Daoist classes and training years around, from two days to 30 days, not for making a profit, but for spreading the Daoist life philosophy and wellness practice, benefiting the people with affinity and the society…. (See its Chinese website at http://www.hdxzg.org/index.html)

海外学子眼中的道教文化–Jinhua Mountain Experience of Daoist Culture

The two-day Daoism-experience class is designed for beginners to learn and experience some basics in Daoism.  The contents of training include:

• Early Morning Classes & Daoist chanting
• Daoist Wellness Qigong Study: Natural ventilation method, Balance work, Induce Immortal Method,  Daoist standing Qigong
• Daoist Classic Works study and its application in Feng-Shui (Feng-shui introductory class; Fengshui implies environmental energy and balance)
• Daoist tea ceremony, and taste of tea
• Visit to Daoist priest’s daily living, and famous meditation caves

The class will also offer Daoist vegetarian meals to the students, three times a day…

 

Guilin — TCM Yang-Sheng Experience in Human-Universe Correspondence

Guilin is famous for its most beautiful mountains and rivers in China; now private investors are building the great Wellness Valley, Chinese medicine streets and Chinese Medicinal City among the beautify mountains. We plan to spend four nights and three days in the painting-like scenery to learn TCM wellness, to experience TCM practice, and to feel the human-universe correspondence.

We will stay at the Compassion Inn in the great Wellness Valley, right on the new Chinese medicine street.  I have personally visited and experienced most of the services at the Chinese medicine street, and created a unique program for our wellness tour participants. Here are the scheduled activities in the following three days:

Day 1: 

• Morning: visit the Yao Medicine Center, including Yao-people’s culture, clothing, medicine, and books, and other treatment methods; Learn the origin of Yao medicine.
• Experience individualized Eye diagnosis by a Yao medical doctor, and then, with prescribed formula, experience the Yao medicine bath
• Experience Chinese medicine hair washing & massage with Qingyun #2 formula
• Lunch, experience five-elements health meal package for the heart, liver, spleen and kidney health, (low-sugar diet for diabetes),
• Afternoon: TCM Wellness club (the largest service clinic in Wellness Valley), first introduction and lecture, then experience body massage (90 minutes),
• Evening: foot bath and massage (at the TCM school)

Day 2:

• Morning: Guilin to Yangshuo cruise tour in Lijiang river (luxury cruise ships)
• Lunch: local meal and tea
• Afternoon: shopping in the West Street alley, and experience the local culture and wellness practice
• Diner: Fragrance sparse vegetarian restaurant in the West Street
• Evening: Watch “Impression Liu Sanjie” performance at the special outdoor natural mountain-river theater (about 60 minutes)

(Short Video of Mountain-river Therater: Impression Sanjie Liu)

Day 3: 

• Morning: Bus to the famous Longji mountain rice-fields (90 min)
• Visit the longji-mountain rice-terrace, feel the human-nature correspndence; need some physical strength to get up to the mountain, or take the cable-car (paid by self) going to the top.
• Noon: taste of local bamboo-rice meal
• Afternoon: Check-in Longsheng Hot-spring Resort Spa, Rest
• Seminar on what make Longsheng famous and unique in health and wellness
• Diner: Local farmer’s rice and vegetables
• Evening: hot springs, to eliminate a full day of fatigue.

 

Beijing — return home or extra 3-day tour

The wellness tour will end in Beijing on May 21, the participants can choose returning to the U.S. after two weeks, or go on an additional 3-day VIP tour in Beijing (with additional cost, itinerary available upon request), which will include the famous tourism spots like great wall, forbidden city, heavenly temper, summer palace and so on.

More information about the Tour:

When:    May 6–21, 2017 (16 days, including international flights)

Where:   Beijing, Xuzhou, Jinhua, & Guilin  (北京、徐州、金华、桂林)

Cost & Registration:  $1,995 VIP all inclusive (shared room, international flight extra)

• Must register before April 8 with signed registration form
• $500 deposit required ($250 non-refundable) to reserve your spot
• $350 extra for single occupancy in lodge (no roommate)
• Early-registration preferred, as tour limited to 39 participants
• Int’l flight (D.C. <–> Beijing): $1,200 (or you can book your own flight)
• 3-day Beijing sight-seeing (May 21-24) available at additional cost ($299)

For more information about this tour, email Dr. Kevin Chen at Qigong4us@gmail.com

We have limited number of spots open to the public.  Please click HERE to download the TCM Wellness Study Tour Registration_Form; return the signed registration form with payment to register (limited to 20 participants from the general public, so please register earlier for your spot).

Note on the Tour and Cost: 

• The all-inclusive tour (without int’l flight) costs US$1,995 (double- occupancy), including:
  • All lodges and meals (near 4-star standard lodge)
  • Medical diagnosis, treatment experience and services
  • All wellness and health lessens and training (Some lectures can be very expensive if paid separately)
  • Domestic flight, train and cruise ships (experience the high-speed train to travel cross China at 190 MPH)
  • Tours and culture show tickets (the most beautiful scenery in China)
  • Hot-spring spa, massage & medicinal bath (unless otherwise noted for personal massage)
  • Travel insurance (accident and illness)
• International flight: Washing-DC to Beijing around trip: US$1,200 (You can book your own flight to arrive the same day)
• For those who wish single occupancy, not share room with other, please add $350 for  a total of 14 nights
• Due to the limitation of training facility, the tour will take only 39 participants in total on the first-come first-serve base. The registration will close by April 8 or when the maximum number is reached.
• $500 deposit required when registering for participation ($250 non-refundable due to the penalty from airline company),  so that the flights and hotels can be reserved in your name. The rest balance is due on April 8^th, (4 weeks before departure).   Our cancellation policy is based on trip director discretion and we do our best to help on a case-by-case basis.  As the departure date nears, it will of course be more difficult to provide full refunds due to fees and fares that we pay in advance.
• You need a valid passport and a China Visa to make it to the tour. If you don’t have a China visa yet, please do so at your early convenience. Once you decide to go. please get your China visa ASAP as China may change its policy on visa application process in response to president Trump tightening policy. I have reached agreement with a VISA service company in DC for a discount price in full service, Please go to web site: http://www.mychinavisa.com for Visa information.
• Please bring two passport-sized photos with you for use on the Certificate of Training from Master Wan Su Jian that you will receive upon completion of your studies at the Beijing Traditional Medicine Exchange Center.
• The entire trip will be led by Dr. Kevin Chen and a professional tourist guide.

This Wellness Tour is specially designed for Dr. Chen’s students of Qigong and Yang-Sheng study.   We have a small number of spots open to the general public at first-come and first-serve basis.   If you are interested in, please download the TCM Wellness Study Tour Registration Form; return the signed registration form with payment to register as soon as possible. Thank you! 

After all 39 spots are filled, late registrant will be placed in a waiting list, either fill in later for cancellation, or have priority to participate in the next Wellness tour (possibly in the November, 2017).   Thank you for your interests in this Tour!