A delegation of five doctors from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County delivered a lesson on basic TCM information at Qucun Primary School in Qucun village, Sanjiang's Laobao township on Jan 20.

The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Administration for Market Regulation has suggested that helping poverty-stricken areas should not only focus on the material dimension but also on the spiritual dimension. 

Qucun village, located on the northern slopes of the 1,448-meter-high Baiyun Mountain in Liuzhou, is an ancient village rich in natural medicine resources. All the people living in the village are of the Yao ethnic group.

The village lifted all of its residents out of poverty in 2020, bringing the poverty incidence rate down from the previous 75.6 percent to the current level of zero. 

The administration has made full use of its foundations to develop Yao medicine in Qucun and has grasped the opportunity to develop a big health industry as well as boosting the traditional medicines of the Zhuang and Yao minority groups in Guangxi. It has also been putting on classes during students' extracurricular time to help these children become high-quality distinctive talents in the future.

Practical knowledge about using TCM in daily life is taught during the class, such as using wormwood to achieve antiviral and antibacterial effects, boiling cordate houttuynia to detoxify and relieve heat in summer, and making dried tangerine or orange peel.

"Helping these children develop interests in Yao medicine can better help them to inherit the traditional culture of Yao medicine," said He Shaoying, a local official from Qucun.

The village is expected to promote education in Yao medicine, and will select those students and villagers with enthusiasm and a foundation in Yao medicine for further instruction. It will set up a special class together with the TCM Hospital of Sanjiang Dong Autonomous County to form a distinctive cultivation model, especially for people from Qucun. 

"Industrial development is one of the vital parts of Qucun's rural revitalization project. We will develop the rehabilitation industry in the village and integrate elements such as health preservation and tourism to achieve a cluster of health consumption," said Deng Yibin, the village's first secretary.  

Tan Chongshun, principle of Qucun Primary School, said that Qucun is the most remote Yao village in Sanjiang, and that both students and their parents have a desire to have interest-oriented classes as high as those in cities. 

Tan said that the school has chosen TCM as the students' interest-oriented class and he hoped that experts can help design curriculum plans for children and more volunteers can take part.