Zhao borrowed money from friends while applying for government funding. The hospital was renovated and new equipment was purchased. He invited some of the old scalp acupuncture practitioners to come back.

Zhao spends most of the profits arranging further education and training for doctors and nurses.

Yang Xiao, deputy director of the hospital, said the expense is well worth it, as improvement in staff quality lays a solid foundation for increased revenues.

"That's why we can regain the trust of the foreign patients in a short time," Yang said.

B. Kurbanov, a 28-year-old Russian TCM practitioner, has played a key role in introducing 600 to 700 patients - mainly children suffering from cerebral palsy, from Russia, Central Asia and East Europe - to the hospital since 2013.

Fluent in Chinese, Kurbanov studied at Shanxi University of Chinese Medicine for five years and later became a TCM practitioner at a hospital in Yuncheng in 2011, where he learned scalp acupuncture techniques from Jiao's disciples, even though the hospital was in virtual bankruptcy.

After Zhao's arrival, Kurbanov easily joined in his efforts to revive it. Currently, there are 24 foreign children receiving cerebral palsy treatment in the hospital. And there are dozens of other foreign patients waiting to be admitted.

A father from Russia who has brought his 13-year-old son to the hospital eight times said: "There is acupuncture, massage, medicated baths and other kinds of physical therapy. The comprehensive use of these methods is effective. In Russia, one place usually has only one treatment method, and we have to travel from place to place for others. It is not convenient."

Zhao observed: "It is actually the value of TCM that attracts these foreign patients."

He added that the government should pay attention to protecting TCM - with top-level design and a development plan - as it deserves a place in ongoing medical reforms.