Traditional Chinese medical departments in China receive nearly 300 million annual visits, sources with the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SATCM) said on Saturday.

"About 234 million visits have been made to hospitals of traditional Chinese medicine, another 58.51 million to Chinese medicine sections of comprehensive hospitals," the sources said.

According to the SATCM, the traditional Chinese medical industry, with a total production value of nearly 81.026 billion yuan (about 10.125 billion U.S. dollars), makes up more than a fourth of China's overall medical industry, with an export value of 820 million U.S. dollars in 2005.

Statistics show that China has 3,009 traditional Chinese hospitals, with more than 310,000 beds, some combining Chinese and Western medicine or Chinese and ethnic minority medicine.

"About 70 percent of all township hospitals, 89 percent of urban community medical services and 40 percent of village clinics have traditional Chinese medical departments," the sources said, adding that traditional Chinese medicine plays a key role in health care in areas poor in medical resources.

Nationwide, 448 standard herbal medicine planting bases have been built, which have helped nearly a million farmers out of poverty by growing and selling herbal medicines.

Source: Xinhua