Sponsored by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the People's Government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the 2001 International Academic Conference on Mongolian Medicine opened in the region's capital on Saturday.

This is the second international symposium on traditional medicine held in China. The first was held last year and focused on Tibetan medicine.

The conference received 963 papers from Chinese scholars in 14 provinces and autonomous regions and foreign scholars from countries as diverse as the People's Republic of Mongolia, Russia, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland.

``China's national medicines, including Mongolian medicine, were created with the people's wisdom and serve the people of all ethnic groups,'' said Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang. ``To develop national medicines is not only an issue of public health or academic research but also an important part of carrying on the national cultural heritages.''

Mongolian medicine is an old medical school that has a well-organized theoretical system and a long history of clinical experience.

Initially Mongolian medicine developed slowly, with just a few doctors who mainly treated patients in Lama temples.

In recent years, though, Mongolian medicine has gone through a rapid development.

Echoing this trend has been the establishment of the Department of Traditional Chinese and Mongolian Medicine at the Inner Mongolia Medical College, the Mongolian Medical College of Inner Mongolia and a Mongolian Medical School.

The Inner Mongolia Medical College has also begun to enroll students from the People's Republic of Mongolia.

By the end of 1999, 39 Mongolian medical hospitals had been established in China, including 32 in Inner Mongolia, three in Xinjiang, and one in Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Gansu and Qinghai respectively.

(China Daily 08/20/2001)