"It is hard to say whether TCM is more effective than western medicine in curing chronic disease," said Liang Rong, a professor at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

"Take coronary heart disease, for example. TCM doctors believe people get this condition because they have too much waste inside their bodies, so we give prescriptions to help them get rid of the waste. But if people do not change their unhealthy lifestyles, the medicine cannot work well," Liang said.

China currently has more than 230 million cases of cardiovascular disease, which accounts for 20 percent of adults in the country.

According to the latest survey findings of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of people over the age of 50 in the capital suffer from a heart problem, a 20 percent higher rate of incidence than the overall average in all age groups.

Similarly, the survey reflected that people's awareness of TCM increased with age. Forty-five percent of people over the age of 45 said they continued to learn about TCM, whereas the learning curve was less than 40 percent for respondents between the ages of 18 and 40, and 20 percent for those under 17.