Qigong profile aspect of China's official health care system

Throughout China exists numerous large institutes for research and clinical application of Qigong, as well as for training of Qigong students, patients, and trainers. In all parts of China it is clear that Qigong is a high profile aspect of China's official health care system. The institutes in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou are large, five to six story buildings with lots of activity. People may either be participating in large classes, seeing particular Qigong teachers for special teaching, or receiving acupuncture, Tui Na (massage), or Qigong-based treatment. The government-supported institutes are also training centers where Qigong teachers, trainers, and Qigong doctors receive instruction.

The Qigong institutes present classes on a daily basis where participants learn general forms of Qigong for overall self-care or specific forms that have been perfected to address specific diagnostic areas such as: particular cancers, arthritis, asthma, hypertension, immune deficiency, etc. Herbal remedies are generally available, as well, to supplement the benefits of the self-care practices. Click to learn how Chinese medicine treats Behcet's Disease.

The Wu Lin Qigong Institute in Hangzhou is more like a retreat where patients and students actually reside. The design of the program is somewhat like a non-acute care hospital, somewhat like a school, and somewhat like a retreat center, but without the luxuries of sufficient hot water, tennis courts, swimming pool, or Jacuzzi. The Qigong schedule begins at 6:30 am, with Qigong practice, followed by a class at 9:00 am to learn and refine techniques, a 2:00 pm lecture, and an evening meditation at 8:00 pm. Meals are Chinese health food, with concentration on grains and vegetables. Acupuncture, massage and herbal formulas are available in the institute's clinic. It is harder to get into a "live in" Qigong program in China than a program at a day use center. The Wu Lin program is a kind of a perk or work benefit, available to certain people who have earned the benefit or who have severe medical need.

Most hospitals in China have departments of Qigong, and in some hospitals Qigong is actually the primary modality. In one hospital in northern China, the only curative modality is a form of Qigong where one specific meditation technique is practiced. At another hospital in central China, a very specific practice of Qigong that emphasizes simple bodily movement is practiced in large groups. The director, Pang He Ming, states that group practice produces a "field" effect (as in magnetic or electrical field) that has a beneficial physical effect on each individual. This particular Qigong institute is famous for its work with victims of paralysis. When the paralyzed patients first attend the institute they just sit in the "Qi field," eventually they can move about and help to generate the "field" for others.