The first Sanjiu Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Center abroad was launched on May 23, 2001, during a ceremony on Victoria Park Avenue in Toronto, according to the latest Beijing Review.

Zhao Xinxian, CEO of the Sanjiu Group, Sun Shuolun, an official with the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and a Canadian legislator were among those present at the ceremony.

The development strategy and general aim of Sanjiu is to build a transnational health product group. An effective way to realize this is the modernization and industrialization of traditional Chinese medicine. A national treasure and an excellent cultural symbol, traditional Chinese medicine has been gradually accepted by patients in Western countries. The Sanjiu Pharmaceutical Group has reinforced research and development of Chinese medicine and presented to the world a selection of instant medicines that do not have to be boiled. The group is also trying to build a chain of TCM clinics and make itself Chinese medicine ¡®s version of McDonald ¡¯s.

In recent years, Chinese medicine has expanded vigorously overseas. Chemical drugs have side-effects that make them unsuitable for long-term use, and Western medicine can do nothing for certain chronic diseases, some difficult and complicated cases, and illnesses that cannot be cured by operations, so Chinese medicine has therefore provided itself as an ideal alternative treatment.

As an advanced Chinese medical clinic, the Sanjiu TCM Center has hired talented TCM practitioners. All of them are graduates of well-known schools of Chinese medicine in China or Canada and have rich experience in treating patients. The center will use Sanjiu ¡®s patent Chinese medicines to serve the patients quickly. Having compared the instant medicines with traditional ones and researched their effects, the center makes improvements on the instant medicines. The shop and exhibition hall have been arranged to display the instant Chinese medicines and other products. A training center was built to promote traditional Chinese medicine by sponsoring classes and discussion groups. A project called ¡°Go and See the Doctor Online¡±

will supply emergency service, enabling anyone anywhere in the world to receive this service. The center covers 6,500 square meters and was visited by many patients on the first day it was open. It is the first clinic abroad that possesses advanced equipment, has high-level doctors and a full range of medicines.

The launch of the center in Canada has promoted the Sanjiu Group ¡®s process of modernizing traditional Chinese medicine. By combining traditional medicine and modern manufacturing techniques, the new and high-quality instant medicines are more and more popular with patients and doctors. The instant medicine represent a pioneering effort in the industrialization and internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine. Now that the center in Canada has opened, the McDonald¡¯s of Chinese medicine also will establish clinics in the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and other countries.