On a recent visit to Henan Province in China I hurt my back and had the good fortune to come across the best doctor in the country. This is Doctor Wang Daifu. Being the top medical student in the most rigorously elitist and competitive system in the world is serious. Just as there are 20 million people studying the violin or engineering in China there are also tens of millions studying medicine — Eastern or Western, or both. Wang Daifu studied Western medicine in the People’s Liberation Army for seven years and Chinese traditional medicine for six. And he came out top of the class. Tall, angular, handsome and aged 42, he operates from his private surgery in the Chaoyang district of Beijing where he looks after anyone who can afford to pay. He also teaches two days a week. I asked him why he had chosen to specialise in Chinese medicine and he answered, laughing, ‘Because I want to be famous!’ In Beijing he is.
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