It's high time we considered the future of Chinese traditional medicine, which faces the risk of extinction, says an article in People's Daily. Following is an excerpt:

"Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) lacks qualified successors and may vanish within 50 years," lamented a senior TCM practitioner recently.

According to statistics, China has about 5.5 million doctors trained in Western medicine, while it has only 400,000 doctors trained in TCM, 20 percent less than half a century ago. Currently, most TCM doctors are above the age of 50, and the youths studying TCM are getting fewer and fewer.