For all of the amazing advancements in modern medicine, some believe many of the old ways remain the best — like some key principles of traditional Chinese medicine which are being passed on to a new generation, including foreigners.

After checking the tongue and feeling the pulse on both wrists of a patient, Ding Yige moves one wrist across to the woman next to him, Nalini Kirk, a German of Indian descent.

Kirk, who has been studying as an "intern" with Dr Ding for almost a year, puts three fingers on the patient's wrist, catches the pulse skillfully and counts the beats. She then writes down the pulse rate, the doctor's explanation of the case and recommended prescription.

Kirk is a student at the Longhua Hospital attached to the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and this is her main course. It is called chao fang, which literally means copying the prescription, but requires much more than that.

According to Dr Ding, a 65-year-old chief physician at the hospital, chao fang is crucially important in TCM and was the only way for an apprentice to learn in old times.

Chao fang incorporates four steps - study the case; learn strategies to deal with the case such as dispelling heat or reinforcing energy; copy the formulas; and most importantly, review the above three steps and try to understand.

Kirk, 31, is not a TCM beginner. Interested in Oriental medicine, she chose to study TCM at the European Institute of Oriental Medicine in Munich a decade ago and started her own TCM clinic in Germany after graduation.

The business was going quite well with many patients suffering ailments such as chronic diarrhea coming to her for TCM treatment because they could not find a cure in traditional Western medicine.

But when Kirk learned she had won the chance to study on a one-year scholarship with Dr Ding, a descendant of a famous TCM family, she immediately closed her clinic and flew to Shanghai.