Thursday, August 28, 2008

Tour 2 part 2: Chinese medicine okay?

The tour bus took us to "tong ren tang" next. Tong ren tang is the
most famous Chinese pharmacy, dealing in traditional medicines.
Chinese medicine revolves around the balance of qi within your body
and focuses on preventative more than curative treatment.

Doctors practising this type of medicine 'diagnose' trouble spots in
your system and recommend how to adjust your intake and activity to
shift it back into balance. You wouldn't necessarily be 'sick', it's
that your body is not performing optimally.

Everyone in the tour group got offered a free consultation. I hell was
keen on mine; I'm not a sickly person, but I tend to feel drained
frequently. Usually I put it down to stress and people giving me the
shits cos they're dickheads, but surely it can't hurt to be a little
open to things that have been reported to work for ten thousand years...

The doctor put 3 fingers on my wrist, just off to the side. He looked
at my tongue and asked my age, then asked if I get headaches. I told
him I did, and that I used a computer for work. He said my stomach and
spleen were weak and not absorbing enough energy from food, so I would
be tired a lot and get headaches.

Overall, no real concerns. Seems I'm in fairly good nick. Picked up
the "wake up spleen" stuff he recommended just in case it really is as
simple as that.

Also got this crazy ass oil from that pharmacy. I don't know if it's
supposed to help sore muscles or just give pain relief, but holy shit
it burrrrrrns so good, and the soreness just vanishes. Fixed my right
shoulder up for the whole afternoon, gonna put some on my neck tonight.

Apparently even Chinese pharmacies have trade secrets, and I got asked
to not take photos of their secret prescription cabinet... After I'd
already taken one. :|

So here's a photo of their not-so-secret sales area, which didn't
upset their appre cart.

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