Trip to China Highlights
A couple weeks have gone by since my return from China where I had a wonderful time and saw and ate many things! Myself and 40 others went with Dr Freuhauf, his family and other acupuncturists, philosophers and students for a 2 week trip to a mugwort and moxa farm and school in Qichuan just outside of Wuhan where Drs Zou and Zhang, a couple that was vested in cosmetic sales and now teach and utilize moxa for medicinal purposes, own this farm where they grow, dry and bundle mugwort (the herb used in moxibustion) for sale. We had 5 days of classes, visited the fields and had one rainy day of moxa/mugwort gmaes inside with the farm and factory hands.
The first picture is where they dry the mugwort and the second is a field of it growing. After 5 days we were all treated to a dinner with many delicious dishes including the 3 rd picture which is my new favorite, a sticky firm rice mold with sauce that was outstanding. The following morning we took an early bus ride to Sichuan Province and were welcomed by Abbess Guozheng at the Puzhao Temple an ancient Buddhist monastery in the vicinity of Mt. Qingcheng.
The 4th picture is the building and courtyard where we did 90 minutes of qigong every morning—depending upon rain or shine. Surrounded by beautiful grounds, picture #5 is just one of the interesting landscape pieces on the grounds. On one of the days we took a trip to Mt Qingcheng and hiked up some small and ancient stairs on the back of the mountain! Pictures 6 and 7 are the hike up to another monastery at the top and picture 8 is some tea growing on the way. #9 is one of my best friends from acupuncture school, Dr Margaret Hampton who practices in Boulder, CO. We had a rousing good time as roommates! Pictures 10 and 11 are Prof Wang Qingyu who is Dr Freuhauf’s teacher for many many years and a friend of the Abbess at the monastery as well.
For days he told us stories of his childhood and becoming a martial artist, teacher and healer. In the one picture he is holding a picture of his teacher, dubbed The Hermit, who has a renowned martial artist and healer. It was a wonderful way to learn the lineage and history of one teacher and how information was passed down orally, how hard these students had to work and the cruelty of life. Pictures 12 and 13 are at the Monastery where we were for a few more days. It was the Moon festival, or close to when we would celebrate the beginning of Autumn. They make cakes with salted yolks to signify the moon and serve these preserved eggs. Generally the eggs are aged for longer where the yolk turns black, but these were probably made to celebrate our visit and were delicious!
The tea picture was an informal but informative class on selecting and making tea correctly. It was very delicious too! Picture 14 is one from the bus on the way to Chengdu of the New Century Global Center, the largest building in the world by floor space at 1.7 million meters! #15 is some of my travel mates at a VERY spicy lunch on the way to #16 the tea school with Mr Yang Tailun, a senior tea master with an amazing story and a love for sharing the healing properties of tea. Pictures 17 and 18 are at a shopping area in Chengdu called the Wide and Narrow Alley.
There is a panda preserve nearby that many people visited, so needless to say there were many panda souvenirs to buy. The door knocker was on a very old corner building in this shopping area that had wonderful silver and tea and antique coins for sale. Picture 19 is Leo a friend of Mr Yang, who sells tea. He served us tea and showed us how to properly make it. The last picture is by a Michelin star Italian restaurant that we all escaped to one night after having enough spicy tofu! It was in a very fancy shopping area in Chengdu. I had a wonderful time learning about moxa, China and its culture and tea. I love travel as you get to see and learn about some of the world and its peoples and where many things originated. I am grateful to have the ability to have gone to see China and am grateful for all that we have in America as I returned home.
Heiner Fruehauf, PhD, LAc
Before the trip to China, we talked a little about who and what I would be seeing. I didn’t expound much on the teacher/acupuncture/herbalist leading the retreat, because I had not had much direct interaction with him in the past. My clinic carries his company’s herbal formulas, Classical Pearls and I had done a yearlong webinar listening to him explain the history behind the cultivation of the herbs in the formulas and illnesses they could treat. This trip to China, that he has taken for 30 years, gives the practitioners and others interested (some qi gong practitioners, some students of philosophy and religion) an insight not only to his love for China, his teachers and the herbs, but his incredible thoughtfulness, inquisitive nature and ability to disseminate 1000’s of years of knowledge and still keep you entertained. He said this was the last trip, as he and his wife, family and business partners are opening an amazing healing collective in Corbett, Oregon. As much as it saddens me to not be able to accompany him and everyone else who went to China, I will most definitely be visiting the West Coast once his project is complete. We all have teachers, patients, friends and strangers who touch our lives and I just wanted to share with you a little about a remarkable person whom I recently met.
Heiner Fruehauf is the Founding Professor of the College of Classical Chinese Medicine at National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM) in Portland, Oregon, where he has been teaching since 1992. As a practitioner, Dr. Fruehauf focuses on the complementary treatment of difficult and recalcitrant diseases, including cancer, chronic respiratory and digestive disorders, and inflammation of the nervous system. The Healing Order is the manifestation of his belief that 21st-century humans can, and must, support their health in harmony with nature. His dream of bringing together the most effective holistic modalities from all over the world comes to life at The Healing Order.
Dr. Fruehauf comes from a long line of German physicians specializing in holistic healing modalities such as homeopathy, herbalism, and hydrotherapy. His great-grandfather studied with Sebastian Kneipp, one of the fathers of the European nature cure movement. Eager to learn from other cultures, a young Heiner left home to study sinology, philosophy, and comparative literature at Tübingen University, Fudan University (Shanghai), Hamburg University, Waseda University (Tokyo), and the University of Chicago, where he earned a doctoral degree from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in 1990.
The experience of a serious health crisis spurred him to supplement his theoretical training in the philosophy of Chinese medicine with the study of its clinical applications. While completing two years of post-doctoral training at Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, he was mentored by the revered Deng Zhongjia, one of China’s primary experts in the fields of formula studies and the classical foundations of Chinese medicine. Dr. Fruehauf continues to publish widely on both the theoretical and clinical aspects of Chinese medicine.
His scholarly endeavors include an ongoing research project on the holistic cosmology of Chinese medicine, in essence a decoding of the ancient symbolism that once correlated the macrocosm of the natural world with the microcosm of the human body. In addition, Dr. Fruehauf is the director of the Heron Institute, a nonprofit institution for the research and preservation of traditional life science. In this capacity, he has been leading the Sacred Mountain Retreat for three decades, a semiannual study tour to the mountains of southwest China that focuses on qigong and other aspects of classical Chinese medicine. He lives in the beautiful Columbia Gorge in Oregon with his wife, Sheron, their kids, 5 goats, 2 cats, and 11 chickens.