TCM ABC + Hutong Tour

Early morning you are picked up from your hotel in the downtown Beijing and transferred to Guang'anmen Hospital of TCM, Beijing ( affiliated to China Academy of Chinese Medicine Science).

Your English speaking doctor will meet you at the hospital gate at 9:00am and you are ushered to a special classroom for TCM learning.

English speaking doctors and educators, with their easy-to-understand presentations, will explain the basic underlying concepts of TCM, its common treatment modalities and integration with western medicine, and modern research in major hospitals of integrative medicine in Beijing.

Noon time: Chinese lunch at a nice restaurant

Afternoon

You will have a hard-to-find opportunity of visiting a 300-year old courtyard, and experiencing a 20-minute rickshaw drive through the zigzag and narrow alleys or hutongs .

You also expect standing on the Silver Ingot Bridge ( Yinding Bridge ), a narrow channel joining Qianhai Lake and the Houhai Lake, the hub of Shichahai area with surrounding quiet hutongs, and then wandering along the Yandaixiejie ( Tobacco Pipe Lean Street ), a quaint 800-year-old hutong.

Ascending the 67-meter high and two-storey Drum Tower dating from the year 1420 is sure to bring you back to the old Beijing by seeing the big drum tower and having bird's-eye view of the surrounding communities of hutongs and siheyuan - existing traditional courtyards in Beijing.

Lastly you will be arranged to visit the famous and time-honored Beijing Tongrentang Pharmacy. Tongrentang was first set up in 1669. It was the designated brand of TCM for Qing court ( 1644 - 1911). Now it has a history of over 300 years. The pharmacy has been continuing to expand till today.