We were in lecture with Changying again today and this time we learned about how to look at the tongue, taking a pulse and the nature of different foods. When feeling the pulse it is based on how weak, strong, rapid, slow, deep or superficial it feels. It is taken with three fingers, the index, middle and ring fingers – a difference from Western Medicine. Each finger belongs in a specific spot, the index – cun, middle – guan, and ring – chi.
This is combined with how the tongue looks. That is based on the color of the tongue, if there is a coating – how thick/ thin it is and what color it is. Also the tongue is divided up into parts the correlate with various areas of the body. For example the tip of the tongue corresponds with disorders of the lungs and heart. While watching her diagnose patients, it looked simple but once we learned all the things she looks for and the various combinations amongst them we realized how much Changying knows especially off the top of her head. Right in the room with the patient she’d say if it was deficiency yin or excess yang for example and then would write up a prescription. We all really enjoyed learning about the food and whether it is neutral, cool or warm nature. To see where I found the picture and read more about the pulses check out http://www.itmonline.org/arts/pulse.htm and to see where I found the tongue picture along with a good overview of TCM check out http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=174361&seqNum=2
Then on our lunchtime we went out with Juyan again, this time to the fabric district. Rachel, Cathy and I all had dresses made in the same red silk/linen mix. We were in this building with little shops full of various kind of fabrics. Then upstairs were the tailors. It was a very packed place with a lot to look ate. He treated us to McDonalds for lunch and it tasted pretty similar to back home. We felt a bit guilty eating McDonalds while in China because none of us eat it back home. We felt though that it was important to try for our research. On our way back we picked up Cathy’s birthday cake too because today is her birthday. 
Then we went back to the hospital for lecture and practice with Wu Jing. She taught us about the different length acupuncture needles and she demonstrated on us. I had one in my hand, neck, leg and then one in each leg with burning moxa on the ends. Cathy had one in her wrist and jaw. Rachel had a few too, in her temple and leg and feet. Afterwards we did some moxabustion. Rachel had it directly on her stomach for 
GI problems while mine was combined with acupuncture in my calves. Laurelyn journaled because she didn’t want to watch anything to do with the needles. She’s not too keen on needles so it worked out better that way. At one point Cathy was talking to Lisa about her Diabetes presentation so we just chatted with Wu, Jing. She told us about divorce here and her marriage. She said about 10 years ago in order to get divorced you had to tell your boss, and them their boss, etc. Then everyone knew your business so it wasn’t very common. Once that law changed the rate spiked. Now it has leveled off and stabilized. It was really nice to able to have a conversation like this. It’s not something we would have asked about normally but she brought it up so we were able to ask. It just shows how wonderful and open people here have been with us. It has really helped us to understand their culture better.
Tonight we went out to a fancy restaurant for Cathy’s birthday, which was delicious. We had a lotus root dish – a favorite of ours, a cucumber dish, rice noodles with pork, a chicken, yams and some other sort of root followed by fruit. Afterwards we all had the cake in her room. The cakes here are beautiful, we had some trouble choosing which one. They all have various types of fruit on them and we chose one with some almonds on the side as well.
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