"I believe the more teachers you have, the more success you'll get, let alone a chance to study from a master like Ding," says Kirk.

Kirk learnt to speak some Chinese at school while Dr Ding can speak some English, which means communication between the apprentice and the master is not a major problem.

Dr Ding always patiently explains a case and formula to Kirk as long as he does not have too many patients in waiting, and Kirk has found herself improving at an amazing rate through her everyday chao fang.

Kirk is not Dr Ding's first foreign student, but she is regarded as the most diligent and talented. "One year is too short, there is just too much for me to learn," says Kirk who regrets the end of her study is rapidly approaching and she will return to Germany in a week.

She says Dr Ding is a very good doctor and teacher, traits no doubt inherited from his family.

Dr Ding's great-grandfather, Ding Ganren, established the Dings as one of the four celebrated TCM families in Menghe, a district in today's Changzhou in Jiangsu Province. The other families are Fei, Ma and Chao.

Ding Ganren moved to Shanghai in 1899 and his success in control and cure of diphtheria and scarlet fever, which were rampant at that time, won him fame and fortune.

Though Ding Ganren often treated poor people for free, he was not satisfied with that and wanted to make an even greater contribution to society.

Influenced by Western culture, Ding considered teaching a much better way to foster more good doctors than in the traditional apprentice-master arrangement.

So in 1917 he set up China's first TCM school, the Shanghai Specialized School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the forerunner of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.