China is creating a new chain of employment for those migrants losing jobs in the export-led factories in coastal regions while rolling out a longer list of road, railway, airport and reservoir projects to shake off the impact of a looming global recession.
Since the 1990s, the number of foreigners coming to China to study TCM has increased dramatically.
Low wages and tough conditions are part and parcel of the job to protect some of China's most valuable primates and ecosystems.
Foe Tai Ling remembers the day she rushed out of a consulting room at the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital on hearing screams and cries from the next room.
They are sometimes called the "lost generation" but 40 years on, China's zhiqing are taking a rational look at their zealous past. A Movement for Change
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the central government faced an economy in crisis and struggled to deal with mass unemployment among young urbanites.
Xing Yanzi, 68, and Hou Jun, 65, smile as they remember the sweet days of their youth. It was a time of ideals, dreams and passion. It was a time when a young person could make a difference.
Zhou Binghe, 57, still likes smoking cigarettes from Yan'an. He misses the years he spent in the old town as one of the zhiqing from Beijing and he misses the man who influenced his life - his uncle, late Premier Zhou Enlai.
Zhang Yu, owner of a consignment store for luxury goods, hopes business stays as strong as it has been in the past two months amid the global economic downturn.
Good weather, improved technology and government subsudies have helped fuel rich harvests for Jilin farmers.
CHINA
