China 2002
May 17 - June 2
(All images courtesy of Keith Koistinen, VMIII)

May 22 | May 23 | May 24 | May 25 | May 26 | May 27 | May 28 | May 29

Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Kim Denning, VM III
Today, during our morning class from 8-11:00 AM, we learned about the techniques of acupuncture and moxibustion. We learned about conventional acupuncture using the round-sharp needle, the small, wide needle and the filiform needle, hemo-acupuncture, fire needling, pneumo-acupuncture, aquapuncture, electro-acupuncture, laser-puncture, thread embedding, moxibustion and vinegar-liquor treatment. Hemo-acupuncture is used to draw blood from the acupoints that are located on veins. The two kinds of needles that are used for this method are the wide needle and the three-edged needle. Fire needling uses a combination of conventional acupuncture and cauterization. It is commonly used for chronic diseases because of its long effects. Pneumo-acupuncture is an injection of air into the subcutaneous tissue. Aquapuncture is the injection of sterile solutions (drugs, herbal extracts, antigens) ! into an acupoint. Electro-aupuncture uses an electric current to stimulate an acupoint. Laser-puncture is the use of a laser on an acupoint. Thread-embedding is the implantation of a thread to treat disorders such as lameness, diarrhea and eye infections. Moxibustion is the use of burning herbs placed near acupoints to stimulate them. Vinegar-liquor treatment is the use of vinegar, liquor and flame to stimulate acupoints. We watched a video demonstrating all of these methods. Some of the methods used here seemed unorthodox compared to the methods used in the United States. In the afternoon we walked down to the barns to observe live demonstrations on the donkeys and pony of conventional acupuncture, fire needling, electro-puncture, laser-puncture, moxibustion, and vinegar-liquor treatment. It was very interesting. Later that evening we went downtown to go shopping and eat dinner at McDonalds.

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Thursday, May 23, 2002
Rachel Fedje, VM III
The bus left from our hotel here in Hang Zhou for Su Zhou at 8 AM yesterday morning. Although it was a charter bus, it was not the smoothest ride. The seams on the interstate could use some work here and there. The driving here in China is very different than ours. It seems that obeying lanes is optional both over the white and YELLOW lines. It make for some adventurous journeys now and then. I guess as a result of the optional lanes, you should honk when you are passing to ensure that no one comes over into your lane, although we're not exactly sure how it works exactly. All I can say, is that I'm glad I'm not driving.

After more than 3 hours riding and feeling like a piece of popcorn, eventually we arrived in Su Zhou. It the nicest day weather-wise we've had since Beijing. The sun was shining but it was not too hot. Su Zhou is a city that has a lot of traditional gardens originally set aside for the retired government officials to study, meditate, write and do art. Now they are open to the public and from the looks of the many shops outside trying to sell tourist souvenirs in combination with the large number of Americans we saw, it looks to be a popular tourist stop. The first garden we went to was called "the Humble Administrator's Garden." It was absolutely gorgeous. I'm sure the pictures we will bring home will not do it justice. Everywhere there were plants and trees and the pathways looked like large natural rock. They wound around in all sorts of directions and it seemed that you could definitely find a place to be more or less by yourself even with so many people around. There were a couple of ponds flanked by little hills with mini pagodas or shelters on top. One pathway was lined by large bowls containing bug-eyed, bubble-bodied, and other exotic looking small fish. Hanging from the trees were bird cages containing various types of small birds. Despite the garden being in the city you could barely hear the noise of the traffic. There was also a garden full of mini landscapes that they had along some of the pathways. I would have liked to stay here all day, but 50 minutes was the limit because we had a schedule to stick to. The bus driver apparently had to leave by 3:30. After the first garden we went to two more gardens which were also beautiful, but seemed a bit more touristy than the first. More open spaces and wide cement paths. There were many flower sculptures such as one of a horse and chariot, but it turns out that even here they will go for the easy way out: they were styrofoam stuffed with fake flowers. However, there were trees made by organizing pots filled with flowers on an iron frame which were very impressive. One of the gardens had a pagoda which we were told leans more than the leaning tower in Pisa. The final stop was a another buddhist temple. We even saw a few monks there. All in all it was a good day, although we were anxious to be back after the 6 hour bus ride to head out for some more Chinese family dining!

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May ??, 2002
Kim Rassmussen, VM III
Left our hotel @7:30 am by bus and headed for the Great Wall. This was the highlight of our Beijing stay. When we got there all we could see were Chinese people, shoulder to shoulder. In China they say you are not a "man" until you have climbed the wall. The part of the wall we climbed was rebuilt and restored for tourist purposes. At the end of what was open to us we could see the rubble and shambles of the falling apart wall beyond. The climb was long and steep, much of it stairs, whish were actually easier than the slopes to climb. At the end, and along the way, were many great picture opportunities, along with many vendors selling, silk, postcards, books, and misc. souvenirs.

After coming back down off the wall we went through the museum and watched a 360 degree video on the history of the Great Wall. The most interesting thing we all learned about the wall was that it is not one complete long segment of wall. Rather it is made up
of several non-adjoining segments (~8 or so), with one major one. These were build and restored by different emperors. We also learned that when an emperor died, live people were buried with him.

After this we went to the Ming Tombs. One of the tombs has had the entrance dug up and has been opened for the public to tour. It was 10 flights of stairs down to the large, high-ceiling rooms. After this we walked down the ?? Road. It was an avenue of animal statues paired all the way to the end, camels, lions, horses, etc. The first pair was always standing and the second pair was always laying down. However, we do not know the significance.

After this, even though we were exhausted from climbing the Great Wall, we went downtown for supper and shopping. Downtown was very modernized and clean. We ate at KFC, McDonalds, and Pizza Hut. Returned to the hotel and turned in for the day.

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Friday, May 24, 2002
Joanna Mangold, VM III
Today was another nice sunny day, we haven't had many since we've been here. We had lecture again at 8, we are continuing to learn about the equine acupoints. We have gone over the location of each point, the problem that each one can be used to treat, and the various treatment methods that can be used for each point. We had lunch at the "Broken Chair" restaurant and then we had lab out at the veterinary teaching hospital. It was really hot in the barns so many of us chose not to return to lab after our break. Instead, some of us sat by the Lake Andread out books and enjoyed the nice sunny day. After dinner a lot of people started to do laundry and a wild game of hearts began and lasted well into the night!!

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Friday, May 24, 2002
Shawna Greene, VM IV
After another rousing Chinese breakfast we headed to our assigned classroom to begin learning the acupoints of the equine head and neck region. The entire morning was devoted to reviewing the anatomy of this region and repetitiously repeating the pinyin names for all of the acupoints of the equine head. Some examples of these points include: Da-feng-men, Tian-men, Tong-tian, Long-hui, Tong-tang, Shang-guan, Xia-guan, and Jing-ming. Our Chinese instructors used a combination of modern technologies such as PowerPoint, elmo projection, slide projection and drawings to clearly point out the locations of these acupoints. The group broke for lunch around 11:30 and we headed to a local restaurant for our meal. The meals here are quite interesting but Dr. Hsu does his best to order a variety of meals that will please most along with a new dish for all to try. The food is served on larger plates and placed on a lazy susan in the middle of the table. The lazy susan is then rotated by the group at the table and we attempt to help ourselves to the food provided by taking our portion with chopsticks. Often many resort to gathering the food with the ladle provided for the soup of the day. We are beginning to fall into a routine and develop a taste for the various dishes. After a brief afternoon nap, some students headed back to the veterinary hospital where the donkeys we would be learning on are kept. The various acupoints were again demonstrated by the instructors and the students were encouraged to find these points on their own. The group then broke and headed back to the hotel to clean up for supper. After supper the students dispersed. Some student stayed around the hotel, played cards and enjoyed each others company. Other students headed to the downtown area for shopping and sightseeing, while others walked the campus and surrounding community.

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Saturday, May 25, 2002
Shana Tedlie, VM III
Well, while most students are enjoying their weekend, the ISU group is hard at work here in China. We had to get up at our usual time of 7 am so we could be in class at Zhejiang University by 8 am. Today we learned the equine acupoints of the trunk and forelimb. The presentation is well done by the professor who uses PowerPoint along with an Elmo to show pictures of where the points are located. The Chinese names are difficult to remember and sometimes they all sound the same, but we are trying to remember as many as we can. We break for lunch at 11:30 and eat at what we call the "broken chair" restaurant, because we can't remember the full name. There are two restaurants on campus that we visit on a regular basis and one is "broken chair" and the other is the "lazy susan." After some lunch and relaxation, we make the trek to the veterinary teaching hospital so we can practice finding the acupoints. In lab we have 1 pony and 2 donkeys and we split into groups to practice. Dr. McDaniels was in my group today and he was a big help in explaining some of the points that he uses on a regular basis to treat lameness in the horse. After lab we ventured on a half an hour walk, in which Dr. Hsu got a little lost because we were looking for the Farmer's Market. Eventually we found the Market and I must say it was very different from the Markets at home. It had not only fruits and vegetables but also lots of meat and fish. It was very interesting to see different parts of animals just lying out on the table to sell. We saw pig's feet, kidney's, intestines, reticulum, rumen, brain, etc. We also saw frogs, snakes, fish, toads, eels, etc. And not all of the animals were dead either, in one corner they had live ducks and chickens for people to pick out their choice and they'd slaughter them right in front of you. All I could think about the whole time was all the diseases and viruses we learned about last year and what we could catch from eating some of the items at the market. Luckily, we had dinner not too long after that at a nicer restaurant than the campus ones. After dinner some of us opted to take rickshaws back to the hotel as opposed to taxis (another frightening experience altogether)!! As some people may have already told you, the driving here is unbelievable, I don't think they even really had traffic laws and if they do, they don't obey them. Well, I think that about sums up the day, so hope all is well in the USA. We are definitely having a good time!

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Picture from Temple of Heaven in Beijing

Sunday, May 26, 2002
Keith Koistinen, VM III
Like most of the rest of the Chinese workers we took the day off from school and work and spent the day shopping in the downtown area. The day started a little later than usual, to allow for a little extra rest. We left the hotel at 10:00 and walked to the nearest bus stop to catch the bus into the downtown area. The bus fare was one yuan for a non-air conditioned bus and two yuan for an air conditioned bus. One yuan is equal to about twelve cents. The bus was extremely crowded, as most buses in China are. Some people in the group felt a little uncomfortable with such little personal space. The last people that got onto the bus had to stand right next to the doorway because it was so crowded.

When we arrived downtown the first stop was the bank to exchange more money. Even though things are relatively cheap the money seems to leave fairly quickly. The exchange rate today was 8.194. This means for every dollar, we received 8.194 yuan (this translates into a lot of buying power for Americans). After the money was exchanged we walked to a restaurant that was sort of strange. The sign had two golden arches and had a statue of a man with red hair and a yellow suit. Inside we ordered a meal that was served to us on a tray with the food wrapped in yellow paper and everyone enjoyed the meal because it tasted pretty familiar.

After we ate, everyone split up and went there separate ways to do their own shopping. A larger group of us went to a very large silk market. This market contained hundreds of shops that sold all sorts of silk items and silk material. Tailors come to this silk market to pick up there silk, and there were also silk dresses, ties, purses, scarves, shirts, tablecloths, pillowcases, and any other silk item of clothing. Also at this market, like many others, bartering was the norm. It is sort of difficult to barter when you do not know the language, but a person gets by. The usual procedure consists of using a calculator to type the number in. Usually many of the items a person can get at least one-half of the labeled price. Everyone got pretty worn out by the end of the day from bartering and shopping.

To get back to the hotel, people just waved down a taxi and showed them the hotel card with the address on it. The taxis are a fairly reliable transportation and pretty inexpensive. Although with the traffic in China the experience can be pretty hair-raising. The cars and bicycles seem to flow together which is quite amazing because there are so many of both. There is even a separate lane for the bicycles and motorcycles. The lane is usually pretty crowded especially during rush hour. Back to the taxis, the fare is usually about twelve yuan ($1.50) from the hotel to the downtown area. Also it is no problem to get a taxi because there are many cabs that go by constantly. They are all the same type in Hangzhou. They are all red and they are either a Volkswagon Santana or one other Volkswagon model that I do not remember.

As I am writing this there have been fireworks going off for awhile now. I have found out most of these fireworks are from the weddings that are taking place. This is a little different than America that they have their weddings on Sunday. Otherwise maybe the fireworks are going off just because the Chinese invented fireworks so they can light them off whenever they feel like it. There have been several nights that there were fireworks being lit so evidently they do not save them for special holidays.

I can see why Marco Polo was so impressed with China when he visited because it has many beautiful things. He especially liked Hangzhou as noted in his diary, and this is not surprising at all because it is a very beautiful city.

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"This picture is of some of the many barges on the Grand Canal. We drove along this canal on our trip from Hangzhou to Suzhou. This canal is nearly as big of an engineering marvel as the Great Wall. It was started 1500 years ago, and was built to bring the agricultural goods of southern China to the consumers in northern China. It is nearly 500 miles long and runs from the sea in the south, north to Beijing." - Keith Koistinen

Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Kim Denning, VM III
This morning, after our usual breakfast of dumplings and fried bread-stick like things, we set off on the sidewalk amidst morning rush hour bicycle traffic to the Zhejiang University Veterinary Hospital. We spent the morning in the barn with two donkeys and the pony, reviewing equine acupoints and trying out needling and moxibustion techniques under the supervision of our three Chinese instructors. Be late morning the heat and humidity in the building were up and we were all glad for the lunch break. We decided to take the shortcut back to our hotel, cutting across the flooded test plots of rice to reach the main campus again. In the afternoon, we headed back to the barn again and were subjected to an individual "quiz" over the acupoints. We finished up in the afternoon heat and several of us left immediately from the hotel for the silk store. Those of us that had ordered custom-made Chinese silk dresses tried on our mostly-finished dresses for the tailor for final adjustments. There was a constant chorus of oohs and aahs as we emerged from the dressing room (also a mop closet) one by one. Afterwards, some of the group remained downtown for a little shopping and the rest returned to the hotel in time for dinner. The Zhejiang University student that's been helping us out, Xiao, stopped by the hotel later and spent a couple hours circulating between rooms and asking us about American culture.

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Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Cara Prunty,  VM III
During our morning lecture, we learned about the canine acupoints. The afternoon lab didn't start until three, so we had free time to take naps, do a little shopping, or just relax. In the afternoon lab, we found the acupoints on anesthetized dogs. We met at "Broken Chair" for supper, and then spent the evening shopping or playing cards. It rained nearly all day and was less hot than it has been Friday.

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