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Page 1 of 2 I just returned from a two-week visit to the People's Republic of China. The purpose of the visit was to meet Chinese cancer doctors and to gain knowledge of complementary and alternative medical (CAM) treatments in this vast and ancient land. A secondary purpose was to lecture at several medical centers and to receive visiting professorships from three Chinese institutions.
The trip lasted from September 18 to October 6 (including transit time). My wife and I took a total of 11 airplane flights, and numerous automobile trips, in a journey that totaled more than 25,000 miles. Throughout the visit I was helped by a wide array of cooperative oncologists, researchers, and scientific entrepreneurs. I am deeply grateful for their assistance and intend to write another newsletter in which I will acknowledge by name the help of many of these wonderful individuals.
At this point, however, I need to acknowledge my overall host for this visit: Xiaohuai Wang, MD, a senior oncologist based in Guangzhou, as well as his colleagues, Dr. Lucy Li, and others. Without them, this trip simply could not have happened. Prof. Wang, whom I met in Chicago earlier this year, has had more than 35 years of experience in treating cancer innovatively. He is a member of the oncology section of the Standing Committee of the China Medical Association, co-editor of Oncology magazine, director of the Guangzhou Military Oncology Professional Committee, and a director of the Guangzhou Military District Hospital Oncology Department. He is a mentor to master's and doctoral degree candidates at the First Army Medical University and the South China Science Polytechnic Institute. In addition, as a leading army doctor, Dr. Wang is a general in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). I will have more to say about this remarkable figure and his colleagues in coming newsletters and reports.
My wife and I began our journey with a cross-country flight to San Francisco. From there, we flew across the international time line to Guangzhou, the thriving capital of Guangdong Province in the southern part of the Chinese mainland. This city was historically known as Canton, although that name is little used today. (People still speak of the Cantonese dialect and Cantonese cooking.) Today, Guangzhou is a huge and bustling port city on the Pearl River, with access to the South China Sea. It is one of the main commercial hubs of China's economic boom, surrounded by the factories that produce many of the goods that the world buys and consumes. The city itself has an official population of around six million, but the metropolitan area has around ten million. In many ways, it rivals any American city, such as New York or Chicago, for its towering skyscrapers, its bustling crowds and its commercial vitality.
We spent four days there, on a whirlwind tour of innovative hospitals and cancer centers. We also had a productive visit to the city's university of traditional Chinese medicine. While in Guangzhou I was honored with two of the three visiting professorships that I received on this trip. The first of these was from Guangzhou's remarkable Friendship Hospital.
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