Cultivating Talents Across the Globe, Practicing Medicine Beyond Borders

A Report on International Exchange and Cooperation at the First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of
Traditional Chinese Medicine

Since the 1980s, the First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has actively responded to national calls, leveraging the unique advantages of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to continuously expand the breadth and depth of international exchange and cooperation. Over forty years of dedicated cultivation, the hospital has consistently prioritized building cooperation networks, cultivating international talents, providing cross-border medical services, promoting TCM culture, and deepening international cooperation as its core operational guidelines. By coordinating the implementation of all international exchange and cooperation initiatives, the hospital has achieved fruitful results in all fields, ultimately being designated as a national characteristic service export base, thereby making significant contributions to the globalization of TCM and the enhancement of human health and well-being.

I. Building Cooperation Networks to Solidify the Foundation for Development

As early as over 40 years ago, the hospital pioneered TCM international exchanges, establishing stable cooperative relationships with over 40 countries, including the United States, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of the Congo, Malaysia, and Germany. It has gradually built a global international cooperation network. Centering on the core fields of medical care, education, and research, the hospital has conducted multi-dimensional exchanges and actively promoted the construction of overseas TCM medical centers. This has laid the foundation of channels and the groundwork for cooperation for subsequent work including talent cultivation, medical services, international cooperation, and TCM cultural promotion, serving as a crucial pillar for the hospital’s international development.

II. Cultivating International Talents to Strengthen Support and Assurance

The hospital focuses on international talent development, clarifying two core directions to build a precise and efficient talent cultivation system, providing solid support for TCM international exchange and cooperation.

On the one hand, the hospital strengthens the outbound training of its internal talents. Since the turn of the century, the hospital has continuously dispatched outstanding young key doctors to renowned overseas medical institutions and universities for advanced training and academic visits. They systematically acquire cutting-edge international medical knowledge, technologies, and management expertise, which effectively enhances the global vision and professional competence of the hospital’s talent team and injects core vitality into the inheritance, innovation, and alignment with international standards of TCM.

On the other hand, the hospital is dedicated to advancing TCM training for international friends. Since the 1980s, the hospital has long undertaken global TCM clinical teaching and internship programs, having trained TCM clinical professionals specializing in acupuncture and moxibustion, Tuina, and other fields for over 80 countries. Currently, it receives nearly 300 overseas interns annually, helping international friends serve as friendly envoys for the promotion of TCM culture. In 2025, the hospital successfully held the Belt and Road International Training Course on Appropriate Acupuncture and Moxibustion Techniques. The hospital also conducted training on cooperation and exchange in traditional medicine medical technology among member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). This training project has been successfully incorporated into the SCO list of work outcomes, serving as a significant measure for the hospital to deepen traditional medicine cooperation within the SCO framework and amplify the influence of international TCM training.

III. Optimizing Cross-Border Medical Services to Realize Two-Way Empowerment

Based on the needs of TCM international development, the hospital has built a pattern of internal and external linkage for TCM service and promotion.

In terms of the external radiation of TCM, the hospital actively undertakes the tasks of the medical teams aiding Africa assigned by the National Health Commission, dispatching medical personnel to Africa to carry out medical assistance work. This extends high-quality TCM medical services and diagnostic techniques to underdeveloped regions overseas, demonstrating the international medical value and humanistic warmth of TCM.

While actively undertaking the training and TCM study programs for foreign personnel coming to China, the hospital also provides high-quality TCM diagnosis and treatment services for foreign patients, enabling overseas groups to deeply appreciate the unique therapeutic efficacy of TCM. Leveraging its profound TCM heritage, the hospital has innovated its international service model by establishing the International Medical Center’s clinic and ward. These facilities have been certified by over 40 international medical insurance institutions, enabling the provision of integrated outpatient and inpatient TCM diagnosis and treatment services for foreign patients, further boosting the international recognition and acceptance of TCM.

IV. Promoting TCM Culture to Highlight International Value

Using international exchange activities as a bridge, and relying on the solid foundation built through preliminary cooperation networks, talent cultivation, and medical services, the hospital regards the overseas promotion of TCM culture as its core mission, continuously expanding the international influence of TCM and steadily promoting the process of TCM going global. Since the 1980s, the hospital has dispatched over 1,100 professional staff to more than 30 countries and regions, conducting lectures, clinical TCM services, and academic exchanges, and systematically exporting TCM theories, distinctive TCM techniques, and diagnostic and treatment experiences.

The hospital actively advances the construction of overseas TCM service entities, having built three overseas centers and one Qi-Huang Institute (A TCMintegrative medicinepublic health platform spanning research, education, clinical care, and industry). Through these physical platforms, it drives the establishment of TCM culture worldwide, accumulating extensive experience in overseas promotion and effectively boosting the cultural influence and global recognition of TCM in the international community.

In 2022, upon joint recommendation by the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Commerce and the TCM Department of the Tianjin Municipal Health Commission, the hospital was successfully approved as one of the second batch of National Characteristic Service Export Bases (TCM category). This honor is not only a high recognition of the hospital’s work in TCM cultural promotion and going global, but also provides solid support for the subsequent continuous deepening of cultural promotion and broadening of international cooperation channels, helping TCM culture to better go global and benefit the world.

V. Leveraging International Events to Broaden Exchange Channels

Relying on its existing cooperation network, the hospital firmly seizes opportunities arising from various major international events. Since 1989, the International Academic Symposium on Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Tianjin, China, initiated by the hospital, has been successfully held 17 times by 2026. After more than three decades of meticulous cultivation, it has evolved into a flagship academic event that brings together global experts and scholars in acupuncture and moxibustion, and related fields to exchange academic achievements, explore cutting-edge trends, and foster win-win cooperation, thereby making continuous contributions to the advancement and academic prosperity of the global acupuncture and moxibustion field.

In 2017, during the BRICS Health Ministers’ Meeting and High-Level Conference on Traditional Medicine, the hospital’s Xiqing Campus served as the only medical institution open for visits, receiving nearly 200 domestic and foreign representatives and comprehensively showcasing the charm of TCM culture and the strength of domestic traditional medicine institutions. In 2024, the hospital hosted the First China-ASEAN International Forum on Traditional Medicine, promoting the complementary advantages and experience sharing of traditional medicine among countries, and helping to deepen the development of the Health Silk Road. In 2025, during the Tianjin SCO Summit, the hospital successfully completed exhibition setup and reception tasks, receiving the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission and foreign guests from multiple countries, further deepening friendly exchanges with SCO member states and relevant countries.

These measures have not only fully demonstrated the hospital's professional strength and sense of responsibility in the field of TCM international exchange, but have also broadened the channels for TCM to go global, laying a solid foundation for the hospital to continue advancing TCM international promotion and deepening multi-field international cooperation.

VI. Accumulating Strength to Empower and Write a New Chapter of Development

Over four decades of unremitting cultivation, the hospital has accumulated a profound foundation and achieved remarkable results in the field of TCM international exchange and cooperation. Looking back on the path of hard work, the hospital has not only built a global cooperation network and cultivated an international talent team but has also, supported by cross-border medical services and linked by cultural promotion, relied on the advantages of the National Characteristic Service Export Base to achieve a comprehensive leap of TCM from technique export to cultural radiation. Looking ahead, the overseas promotion and international cooperation of TCM still have a long way to go and bear heavy responsibilities.

In the future, the hospital will continue to integrate premium domestic and international resources, innovate models of international exchange and cooperation, and deepen the essence of going global and bringing in. It will continuously advance the promotion and development of TCM culture across the globe, build a bridge for the integration of TCM and world traditional medicine, achieve mutual empowerment, coexistence, and mutual prosperity, and enable this TCM, a treasure of excellent traditional Chinese culture, to better benefit all humanity.

Launch Ceremony of the Qi-Huang Institute in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville)

MOU Signed between the Hospital and the TCM Praxis Neuerer in Germany

Academician Shi's Demonstration to International Students

Chinese Aid Medical Team in the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville)

International Medical Services

Serving the Local International Community

The BRICS Health Ministers'Meeting and High-Level Conference on Traditional Medicine

The World Congress of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The First China-ASEAN International Forum on Traditional Medicine

The First Sheikh Zayed International Conference on Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Hospital Reception of the Chairman of the Executive Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission during the SCO Summit in Tianjin

The 17th International Academic Symposium on Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina in Tianjin, China