Chinese Medicine & Massage: Where Foreigners Get Real Acupuncture and Tuina in China

If you want real Chinese medicine (中医, Zhōngyī) — a consultation, acupuncture or a medical tuina massage — book it at a public TCM hospital. In Beijing, at least three TCM hospitals run international departments that see foreign visitors by appointment. A street wellness or foot-massage shop is fine for a relaxing rub, but the rules do not let it needle you or prescribe anything. In Beijing's public hospitals, TCM treatments have official price caps, such as 20 yuan for cupping and 85 yuan for neck tuina. Two other things to avoid: a friendly stranger who invites you for tea or a massage, and herbal products made with endangered animals or plants.

Where to go for legitimate TCM and massage

This page covers only the TCM side. For hospitals in general, vaccines, pharmacies and how paying works, read our health and medical care guide.

Hospital international departments (Beijing)

These are the easiest way in if you speak no Chinese. You book ahead, someone helps you through registration, and treatment is done by hospital staff.

• Guang'anmen Hospital, International Medical Department (广安门医院国际医疗部). It lists tourists among the people it serves and offers acupuncture, tuina (推拿, Chinese medical massage), massage and herbal medicine, by appointment on +86 10 8800 1248.
• Dongzhimen Hospital, International Department (东直门医院国际部), part of Beijing University of Chinese Medicine. It opened in 2013, its care is built around tuina and acupuncture, and all visits use timed appointments.
• Beijing Massage Hospital, International Patient Department (北京按摩医院国际患者部), in a courtyard house in Xicheng District. Beijing's official tourism site said in 2019 that it sees groups of one to six people, needs booking at least two weeks ahead and has staff who help in English — check that these rules still apply when you book.

Guang'anmen and Dongzhimen do not say on their pages which languages their staff speak, so ask about English when you call. Neither department publishes its prices online, so ask for the cost of the consultation and each treatment when you book. You can read Guang'anmen's own description on the hospital's international department page (in Chinese).

What a public hospital charges

If you have a Chinese-speaking friend with you, the hospital's regular TCM or tuina outpatient clinic is also an option. Foreign patients pay the same fees as Chinese residents and pay for themselves, either directly or through private health insurance. At a top-tier public hospital in Beijing, the basic consultation fee for a standard outpatient visit is 50 yuan, and treatments are charged on top of that.

Since 27 December 2025, Beijing's public hospitals must keep TCM treatments at or below a government maximum price and post their prices in the treatment area. Some of the caps, per session:

Tuina is priced by body part, from 45 to 100 yuan per session, and foot reflexology has no capped price in public hospitals. The official notice is on the Beijing Healthcare Security Administration site. These caps cover Beijing's public hospitals only. International departments may price their services differently, which is one more reason to ask when you book.

Shanghai and other cities

In Shanghai, Longhua Hospital (龙华医院), a teaching hospital of the Shanghai University of TCM, was picked in 2023 for the city's pilot on medical services for international patients. Call the hospital and ask how foreign patients book. In other cities, ask the international department of a large public hospital whether it can arrange TCM. Our guide to English-speaking hospitals covers where to start in Shanghai, Chengdu and other major cities.

Massage and foot-spa shops: what they can and can't do

A massage or foot-massage (足疗, zúliáo) shop is legally one of two things. If it is registered as a non-medical "health preservation" (养生, yǎngshēng) business, it may not use acupuncture needles, scarring or blistering moxibustion, joint manipulation (bone-setting) or traction, may not write prescriptions, and may not give you herbal medicine to swallow that is outside the food-and-medicine list. If it is a TCM clinic, it must be registered with the local health authority and display its TCM clinic registration certificate (中医诊所备案证). So if a shop offers acupuncture, look for that certificate on the wall; if you can't find it, walk away.

A legitimate shop has to show three things where you can see them: its business licence (营业执照, yíngyè zhízhào), its price list, and information about its staff. It also may not claim that its massage treats illness. Not displaying the licence can lead to a fine of up to 30,000 yuan if the shop refuses to fix it. Every service must show what it includes and what it costs, and the shop may not charge anything that is not on the list.

Don't rely on a hygiene permit as your test. Since January 2025, national rules sort public venues into permit, filing and exempt groups, and provinces treat foot spas differently, so the licence and the price list are the better signs.

If a shop overcharges or adds fees you didn't agree to, you can complain to 12315, the national consumer complaint hotline, which also runs the website 12315.cn. In practice, the best protection is simple: pick a shop with the price list on the wall, point to the service and the price before you start, and pay for that.

The tea and massage scam, and other limits

The scam goes like this. A friendly stranger invites you to a tea house, bar or massage place nearby. At the end you get a huge bill, sometimes with threats or card fraud. The UK government warns about this in China's busy tourist areas. Canada's travel advice names Tiananmen Square in Beijing and the Bund, Nanjing Road and People's Square in Shanghai, and says bills can reach thousands of dollars.

The fix is to choose the place yourself. A massage you walked into from the street, with prices on the wall, is a normal purchase. A massage someone you just met leads you to is the scam. If it happens anyway, Canada's advice is to get somewhere safe, write down the name and address of the place, report it to the police and get a copy of the report, then call your card company to report fraud. Read more on the UK's China travel advice and in our guide to tourist scams in China. If you want real tea, see our guide to Chinese tea and where to try it.

One more limit: TCM is not emergency care. For a fever, an injury or chest pain, go to a regular hospital emergency department.

Can you take Chinese herbal medicine home?

Anything you carry out of China, herbs included, has to be a reasonable amount for your own use. Medicines made with endangered species cannot leave China without a special export permit — the official notice names products containing bear bile, elephant skin, leopard bone, antelope horn, musk or pangolin scales, plus ivory products. Valuable TCM raw materials are on the restricted export list, and if you carry restricted items above the limit, you must declare them in writing at exit customs. If you are taking more than a small personal supply of valuable herbs, ask the customs officers at the airport before you check in. Your home country may have its own rules on bringing herbs in, so check its customs website before you buy. Exit steps are in our guide to leaving China.

Last updated: November 2026