One of the great things about my placement at this hospital in Harbin is the opportunity to observe the rehabilitation of post-stroke patients. I observed in the clinic of Dr Cheng Wei Ping for two weeks and marveled at his skill in scalp acupuncture, helping people move and speak again after a stroke. But the doctor and his students are often too busy to explain the points used on the head, and my limited language skills don't help.

So it was a wonderful opportunity to hear Professor Lu Jin Rong (second from the right in the photo) talk about the basics of scalp acupuncture last week. Compared with classical acupuncture, which has been around for at least 2,000 years, scalp acupuncture is a new development, having been developed in China only over the past 40 years. It is a combination of acupuncture needling techniques and modern knowledge of the brain and its functions.

As a student, I learned the 360 classical acupuncture points -- although only about 100 are commonly used in clinic. However, scalp acupuncture does not use acupuncture points per se, but rather areas on the head that are related to different functions. Professor Lu taught us how to find the motor zone (used for paralysis of the body and face, including speech problems), sensory zone (for numbness like in neuropathy), tremor zone (to reduce symptoms of Parkinson's), and visual and balance zone on the scalp. Professor Lu showed us the techniques for needling and manipulation. It was an amazing afternoon, and was exactly one of the reasons I came to China.

This is not to say that we can be experts with stroke and facial paralysis anytime soon, but it gives us a good grounding to be able to go away and do our own research and try these techniques in clinic when we go home.

Has it really been two weeks since we started observing in Dr Cheng's clinic at the First Affiliated Hospital of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine? Granted, three of those mornings were spent going to police stations and registering ourselves. (That is for another blog perhaps.) And two mornings involved following Dr Cheng while doing his ward rounds at the hospital. But it has given us a few clear mornings to observe how the doctor runs his clinic, with the help of his students.

On any given day, current patients will start coming in at 7.30 in the morning and go into the treatment room, which has about 14 beds. When the doctor arrives -- sometimes with bags of fruit or some delicacy that he shares with others -- the students are ready to hand him needles, which he deftly sticks into each waiting patient, no notes needed, he knows all their conditions. 

The doctor always inserts needles into patients' scalps, and might insert needles into body points. Often he will give instructions to the student on which points to use, then go on to the next patient. Always he has a few words with each patient, always smiling, always encouraging. He touches each one of them on the shoulder, his bedside manners honed by 35-40 years of practice. 

Then he starts seeing new patients (or perhaps ones he has seen before but are coming for another consultation). His consultation room is usually heaving with people -- patients and their relatives, lots of students who are either helping or observing (if they are helping, they are taking notes on the computer or taking down herbal prescriptions on the patients' little clinic notebook, acting as receptionist, or creating official order forms), and hospital staff who might want a word with him. 

Dr Cheng is the top chap for strokes and facial paralysis in this part of northeastern China, but he is more like a GP (general practitioner) in the range of conditions he sees, anything from insomnia and back pain, to tinnitus and hyperactivity (ADHD). One boy who looked about 10 years old came in with his mother. He came three years ago for ADHD and was given herbs. I could not see signs of hyperactivity in this boy, he looked healthy and his eyes full of spirit. I was told the herbs have helped enormously -- I certainly agreed with that. Back home he would have been given Ritalin, like thousands of other boys.

Next week our motley crew will move on to a dermatological clinic, where herbs are used (not so much acupuncture). But first, there is the weekend to enjoy.

On Heping Road in the Xiangfang District of Harbin stands a wonderful new hospital complex devoted to Chinese medicine. Or more accurately, the integration of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. This is my home for the next three months.

My first few weeks will be spent observing Dr Cheng Wei Ping, a famous specialist in neurological conditions such as stroke and facial paralysis, so common in this northeastern corner of China. Dr Cheng holds consultation every morning and might see 30-40 outpatients a morning, aided by about a dozen student assistants. Twice a week he makes the round of wards in the hospital to check on patients with the most serious and acute conditions.

While strokes require immediate life-saving treatment by western medicine, the chronic long-term effects such as loss of speech or movement are not dealt with as well by western medicine. However, scalp acupuncture has been developed over the past 40 years in China, marrying Chinese needling techniques with Western medical knowledge of the cerebral cortex. Many studies show positive results in treating disorders of the nervous system.

Last week my classmates and I observed inpatients and outpatients receiving acupuncture or herbs, more often in combination. Most of the scalp points were unfamiliar -- we were certainly not taught those points at London South Bank! After some reading we realised that these were not actually acupuncture points but were actually areas of the scalp, and mapped directly over parts of the brain controlling areas like speech, motor, sensory, vertigo and hearing, or tremor control. So needles were inserted into patients' scalps depending on what part of the brain needs to be stimulated. Post-stroke patients who have paralysis or weakness of legs will have their foot motor areas needled and stimulated vigorously. 

Lots of research to do this weekend then, so I can understand more of what I will see in Dr Cheng's clinic next week.

An onion-domed church is not what I expected to find in Harbin's city centre. But there it is, the Church of St Sophia taking pride of place in the old part of town. There are plenty of old buildings, very much bearing Russian and Jewish influence, and they are still intact and have not been bulldozed down to make way for bigger and taller developments.

I arrived in Harbin last Friday 5th September. But because of the autumn festival, I cannot officially register at the Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine until today. My classmates and I had the long weekend off, so we explored the area around the university and the city centre. You can take a taxi to town for 2 GBP, or you can take a bus for 10 pence. I like it already!

Raining in Beijing today -- that can only mean one thing, you have to head into a museum. So my friend and classmate Teresa and I made our way to the very grand National Museum of China, across the street from Tiananmen Square.

Many many objects of art stood out, but the highlight was definitely this bronze figure model for acupuncture and moxibustion. Marked with meridians and acupuncture points, these figures were used in imperial medical academy exams. They were coated in beeswax and filled with water, so students can identify the right points. 

This model was cast in 1443 during the Ming Dynasty. Teresa and I had great fun identifying the points, giggling a lot when we got something right. And probably because those days of acupuncture point identification exams are firmly behind us.

It seemed a good idea at the time. Take the 24-hour train that goes directly from Hong Kong to Beijing, avoiding the queues at the airport and arriving straight in the city centre. 

All fine in theory, except it doesn't quite work that smoothly when you've got to push an enormous suitcase and a carry-on bag through security, immigration, and finally on to the train and into your compartment. But lucky lucky me, there were only two of us in a four-berth compartment. Jo, my roomie, a lady from Beijing, found someone with whom we can practise her English, and I found a Putonghua teacher. Perfect!

So the 24 hours went by quickly. I spoke more Putonghua in the first 12 hours than in the past 12 months combined. I ate Chinese train food and discovered how much the Chinese love their snacks (spicy tofu candy, anyone?). And arrive at Beijing West Station, ready for four days of playing tourist in this enormous capital city.