Foe Tai Ling remembers the day she rushed out of a consulting room at the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital on hearing screams and cries from the next room.

When she peered inside, she saw Dr Bai Yulan treating a 9-year-old boy with acupuncture needles. The boy was wailing with pain and his father, who could not bear to watch, was standing outside in the corridor.

However, the father knew his son's pain would be worth it. He told Ling, an Indonesian intern in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), that his child's hearing had improved because of it and that if she wanted to learn acupuncture, she should apprentice herself to Bai.

Since the 1990s, the number of foreigners coming to China to study TCM has increased dramatically, according to China Care Net of TCM. In the 1950s, there were only 10 foreign students a year. Between 2000 and 2005, there were 200 students annually. The figure doubled in 2006.

Gong Jiapei, an instructor in the international school at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BUCM), says the number of foreigners specializing in acupuncture has grown since the mid-1990s. At the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital, an average of 30 foreign students enroll each year as acupuncture interns, many from Asian countries.

Dr Bai, former head of the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital's acupuncture department, is one of Beijing's most renowned practitioners and specializes in treating complicated musculoskeletal, neurological, digestive and respiratory conditions.

As Ling learned, however, it is not easy to get a job with a master. "One day I plucked up the courage and asked Dr Bai if she needed an assistant, even though she already had plenty of them. She didn't say anything - she just turned her back on me," Ling recalls.

But Ling didn't give up, she often turned up at Bai's consulting room to watch her treat patients. Several weeks later, she asked again. "This time, her silence was a sign of consent," Ling says in fluent Mandarin.

Unlike Ling, Dr Jose Luis Coba Carrion of Ecuador did some research before asking to study TCM under Bai. He noticed that Bai's schedule was always full in the morning, so he came at noon when she was about to take a lunch break.

Bai looked so formidable that Coba Carrion hardly knew what to say, even though he had practiced it many times.

"I just said that I came from a country far away and that I wanted to study acupuncture to help the Ecuadorian people and therefore needed a really good teacher," Coba Carrion recalls. He was accepted.

Bai has taught some 6,460 foreigners from 30 countries over the past 30 years, including some whose visits lasted less than a year.

"For me, the standard for selecting students is very simple," says 66-year-old Bai. "If students are solidly grounded in both TCM and Western medicine, and more importantly, are able to bear hardship and have the initiative to study, I am willing to teach them, no matter where he or she comes from."

Bai currently has 11 interns and when she arrives at 8 in the morning, a crowd of patients is already waiting for her. Her two consulting rooms can accommodate up to 20 people. Surrounded by a group of interns, Bai takes measurements of a patient's skull to find the right acupuncture points. Before inserting needles in his or her head, she asks her students to touch the points and instructs them how to use the needle correctly in terms of pressure, angle and depth.

Bai often uses the Socratic method in teaching - she tests her students by asking them to explain what effect inserting a needle into a particular acupuncture point will have. If the answer is correct, the teacher's face lights up with a smile. "Well done!" she says.

Ryu Eun Sang, 36, is the most experienced of Bai's foreign interns. After obtaining a PhD in acupuncture, he opened a clinic in Seoul, South Korea, but closed it in 2006 to come to Beijing. He became Bai's student in March.

"I never expected to stay in China for so long," Ryu says.

"If I just wanted to learn some treatment methods, I could have returned to my country much earlier. What I really wanted to learn from Dr Bai is her drive to continue to expand her knowledge, no matter what age."

Despite her full schedule at the hospital, Bai makes time to do research as well as study English. "She is capable of curing many difficult and complicated cases, but unlike other doctors of her age, she is not satisfied and keeps learning. That is what I like the most about her," Ryu says.

Byong Hoon Lee, 30, an Australian of Korean descent, became one of Bai's students two months ago. Lee's pockets are always stuffed; he carries an acupuncture textbook in English in one pocket and a small notebook in another.

"Dr Bai has found some acupuncture points that are not mentioned in my textbook, so I write them down for further study, which is very helpful," Lee says.

For all the foreign interns, the most difficult part of studying acupuncture is the Chinese language.

"Even though I have no problem communicating in Chinese, I don't always catch every word when taking notes," says Ling. "The underlying principles of TCM are also too deep and complicated for me to understand."

Coba Carrion, meanwhile, is not sure Ecuadorians will accept acupuncture. "It will require a lot of explanation but I am confident of its powers," he says.

Ryu is about to return home and open a new TCM clinic in Seoul but adds: "What I really want is to have a Chinese acupuncture license to work as a doctor in Beijing." So far, no foreigner has been licensed as an acupuncturist in China.

(China Daily December 16, 2008)