Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona has his pulse taken by a TCM practitioner. Photo: Courtesy of the Beijing Hanyitang TCM Hospital

Sri Lankan Ambassador to China Palitha Kohona visited the Beijing Hanyitang TCM Hospital on August 7 and praised traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as an attractive form of medical treatment. 

Kohona experienced TCM techniques of pulse-taking, tuina, cupping and acupuncture, all experiences that the ambassador termed "amazing!" 

Kohona has always been interested in Chinese medicine and has experienced TCM techniques such as tuina in the past, but his visit to the Beijing Hanyitang TCM Hospital was his first acupuncture experience. "The whole process was so relaxing that I even took a nap. After doing it, my body was much more relaxed and I felt amazing," he said.

Zhang Ju, the chairman of the Beijing Hanyitang Medical Health Group, briefed the history of the  hospital to the ambassador. Zhang said that inheriting and innovating TCM culture has always been the aim of the hospital and new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence are being applied in TCM.

"I hope China will open a TCM hospital in Sri Lanka, where there are also many lovers of Chinese medicine in our country, and at the same time, I hope that there will be more mutual exchanges and learning experiences between the medical practitioners of our two countries," Kohona said.