Taking shape on the fringes of Zhongshan, just a 15-minute taxi ride from the city center, a hospital for treating chronically ill patients with herbal medications, combined with the ancient Chinese art of qi gong, is rising quickly. The hospital will be the first medical facility of its kind on the mainland.

It aims to cater specially to elderly retirees from Hong Kong, the mainland, as well as other parts of Southeast Asia. It will also undertake research seeking cures for cancer, diabetes, kidney problems and other diseases that afflict the elderly.

The goal is to capitalize on medical tourism that has become popular among ethnic Chinese communities in Malaysia, Singapore and throughout the region.

When China Daily visited the five-story facility last year, construction had reached the second floor. It was to have become operational by late 2013. But the operators explained that inclement weather had disrupted cultivation of about 1,000 species of special Chinese herbs being grown on a sprawling mountainside on the outskirts of Zhongshan. The hospital is now rescheduled to open by mid-2014.

Besides being a medical center, it will also serve as a high-end hospice for terminally-ill patients.

"We expect to draw immense interest from elderly Chinese from all over the world, to come here and seek treatment. It's a revolution in the art of healing," says renowned Hong Kong Chinese medical practitioner and qi gong master, Yuen Chiu-kwan, who has taken up the responsibility for overseeing the recovery of all patients at the center.

(HK Edition 01/03/2014 page1)