A traditional Chinese medicine hospital in Shanghai has teamed up with the local tourism authority and tourism agencies to offer TCM-experience activity for expatriates to promote the city's international medical tourism brand.

Longhua Hospital has designed several packages of the TCM-experience product, including Tai Chi, learning common herbs, trying typical TCM diagnosis and therapies like acupuncture and tuina, as well as making sachets.

It is the first hospital to introduce such TCM-experience service.

Since it launched the products in March, Longhua has received over 20 expat groups and many individuals, who are very interested in TCM.

Hospital officials said they developed the product because Longhua was selected in the city government's pilot scheme to encourage local hospitals to step up efforts in offering international medical tourism products and streamlined health services.

The Shanghai Health Commission has designated 13 leading public hospitals and 20 private hospitals as pilot facilities, which, especially the public ones, have outstanding medical capabilities, innovative practices, and foreign service experiences.

"Longhua Hospital is the only TCM hospital among the 13 leading public hospitals and we wanted to do something that Western medicine hospitals can't while making full use of our specialities." said Dr Ping Li, director of the hospital's international medical center.

"As many expatriates are very interested in TCM, we designed and developed the product packages. This measure is also in line with the city government's plan to require the health and culture and tourism authorities to encourage tourism agencies to develop new medical tourism packages."

"Some of expats coming for TCM experience have been guided by tourism agencies under the recommendation of local culture and tourism administrations," she explained.

On Monday, an Indian couple visited Longhua Hospital and had a very special TCM tour.

"It is the very first time that I experienced TCM. It was very interesting and I will share it on my social media," said the woman named Delaine. "I wanted to try something unique and asked our tour guide to design a special tour in China. So they recommended this activity and brought us here for a TCM experience, which was fantastic."

"The whole process was very comfortable and doctors gave us a detailed and interactive introduction. I will try TCM after we return home. My husband has allergy and Western medicine doctors we have approached have all failed, so we may try TCM in the future after this experience."

Chen Jie, the tour guide, said it is the first time her tourism agency has taken expat customers to a TCM hospital and it was a very good experience.

"I never expected the event to be so well-organized and doctors' language ability was so good. We will introduce and promote this program to our expat customers in the future. In addition to visiting the Bund and Yuyuan Garden, we want to share such products, with very unique Chinese culture and background, with them," said Chen from Guilin Tangchao Tourism Agency's Shanghai branch.

If you go

Consultation and reservation hotline: 189-1776-7605

Venue: Longhua Hospital's international medical center

Address:9/F, Bldg 1, 725 Wanping Rd S.

Cost: 600 yuan/hour