A slightly different timetable for the second week; a morning with the revered Dr Tao in Qin Huai TCM Hospital some distance from the university. Transport was provided from the university and we had not only a new colleague in our little group in the shape of Christophe, a young French man living in Brussels, but also a Chinese student to translate for us. Dr Tao is in his seventies, silver haired and bespectacled, and almost Buddha like in his demeanour, almost always smiling broadly, giving everybody time, and never appearing fazed. People are said to travel long distances to see him, and the busy clinic reflected this. He clearly loves teaching, and had us looking at patients’ tongues and feeling their pulses as well as observing the acupuncture. The picture of the Buddha bears no resemblance to Dr Tao who is a slight, compact man, but note the long earlobes, considered very lucky in China.

A minor irritation erupted in the form of a visiting doctor, one of those bumptious individuals who delights in telling everyone about their practice and their way of doing things. It is intriguing how egotists like this evoke such a powerful reaction (sheer annoyance) in others, irrespective of nationality. He informed us that we would get nowhere unless we learned Chinese and had all the Chinese names for all the acupoints, as we wouldn’t understand the meaning. Never mind that the there is an agreed standard nomenclature for the points drawn up by the WHO in conjunction with the Chinese authorities.

Lunch in the Blue Gulf coffee place near the university was jasmine tea and a exquisitely pretty platter of fruit

Back to the First Affiliated hospital for a session with Dr Hu. More progress as we were allowed to put in a few needles, rather nerve racking when being watched like a hawk. Walking up to the university for a lecture in ear acupuncture was almost like being in Ireland, it was cold, overcast and raining.

The ear acupuncture lesson was given by a doctor who trained in China in the 1950’s, and translated by our interpreter from the previous week. Her teaching style was rather dry, but she did have a short break midway through, during which she spotted the auricular needles Dr Hu’s students had put in our ears to demonstrate what they were like. She was very interested in my ear, declaring the needles to be in the wrong place, and proceeded to examine the ear, finding a small nodule I never knew was there. She then felt my pulse and pronounced it as thready with possible cervical vertebral problems. If truth be known I was cold, tired and hungry, so no wonder I was “deficient”! I will reserve judgement on the neck – it seems fine to me.

For dinner we returned to the Blue Gulf coffee place. Two chose beef tenderloin with vegetables and rice, one had little sweet potatoes and I ordered spicy tofu with vegetables. The meals were presented with some style on individual trays, accompanied by a pot of clear soup, a little dish of ginger pieces and a couple of pieces of watermelon. The beef was deemed really tasty though quite spicy, and the sweet potatoes were small and filling.

There were a couple of problems with the tofu dish. It took forever to arrive so that everyone else had almost finished eating when it was finally put in front of me. It was delicious, though delving into it revealed some horrific fragments resembling small tentacles, not a welcome find in a supposedly vegetarian meal.  I discarded these mini monsters and carefully checked every chopstick morsel for unwanted ingredients. Caveat emptor!