Traditional Chinese medicine herbs
Traditional Chinese medicine herbs

Traditional Chinese medicine clinic scam in China

Last updated on 30 Apr 2019
China
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How it works:

  • Situation: whatever happens at some of these tourist oriented TCM clinics is all one big show.
  • Opening: free foot massages are given and you see men in white lab coats posing as doctors. Some even claim to be from the China Academy of Medical Sciences.
  • Set-up: they take your pulse and diagnose your “problems” explaining with common situations such as sleeping late nights which is probably true for working adults. They then try to sell you overpriced, useless/fake herbs or liquids.

Places to beware:

  • Beijing
  • Chongqing
  • Shanghai

What to do:

  • Go to reputable TCM clinics, such as Tong Ren Tang, a TCM shop with centuries of history.
  • However, be wary of companies claiming to be affiliated with Tong Ren Tang and copycats/fakes which exploit tourists.
Tell us your story




2 user stories related to this scam

Start over

Fake medicine which was just a green tea bag

  Prathibha Madushani   19 Jun 2019   2   0

In Shanghai, we paid one place to get some herbal oils as the recommendation of the driver. It was a nice place saying an ayurvedic clinic with a few doctors from a government medical college. Since it is Ayurvedic, they took us into a room and checked our pulse at the wrist.

For me, what they told was I not eating healthy and not sleeping well. It is an obvious thing when they see dark eye bags, but I thought it can be true they feel a difference in pulse. Then they gave me some tea bag kind of medicine saying it can detox my body and let me sleep properly. I paid double the amount of tea bag for some fake medicine which was just a green tea bag!

Never go to these tourist-oriented ayurvedic places just because your driver recommended. They get a commission for that business, but we are being fools!

Comment

Traditional Chinese medicine doesn’t work

  Steve1   18 May 2018   2   0

Regarding ‘Traditional’ Chinese medicine, why on earth you would choose it over ‘proper’ western medicine escapes me. It doesn’t work, So tourist oriented or not, its still a waste of money.

Comment

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