04/16/2026
It was 13 years ago last week that I arrived in Beijing, China with a group of classmates from for a study abroad program and a life changing adventure! 🇨🇳 We spent the first few days being tourists in Beijing before heading to Chengdu to spend 3 weeks doing rounds at the Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Seeing the integration of Western and Eastern Medicine in a hospital setting was bittersweet. It was so amazing to see what was possible through integration but also disheartening to see how far from that we are in the United States. Still, it solidified for me how powerful this medicine is.
Stepping into Tiananmen Square in Beijing was surreal since my knowledge of it was from images of the protests in 1989 as a teenager.
We saw people practicing Tai Chi in the parks & the Temple of Heaven. We walked along part of the steep Great Wall of China. We ate mung bean popsicles at the UNESCO Heritage site of Mount Qingcheng (where my obsession with mung bean began!).
We visited the Giant Buddha in Leshan on our way to the sacred Buddhist mountain of Mt. Emei where we spent a week doing Tai Chi and eating delicious homemade food 3x/day at a magical bed and breakfast.
In Chengdu, we visited the Chengdu Chinese Herbal Medicine Market as well as a TCM Museum with acupuncture needles from the Han Dynasty (206 BC).
We went to Tibet after a week of preparing for the altitude by taking Rhodiola, which was just known to us then as the "Tibetan herb" or Hong Jing Tian. It is a place of breathtaking beauty in the midst of so much struggle.
Many people haven't seen these pictures or heard my stories from this time (pre-social media days!) but as with all travel, it has shaped me into the person and practitioner that I am today. I am so grateful.
