(Photo: CGTN)

It's not common to see a traditional Chinese therapy being fleshed out on patients in Africa.

Performing the acupuncture is Huang Yue, one of two traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctors with the Chinese medical team in the Republic of Congo.

You could say he bears responsibility for saving lives in this underdeveloped country. He's also here to spread knowledge of the Oriental medical practice.

The doctors organized several free clinics right after their arrival last year and found that many local residents had neck and spine problems. But the hospital where they were based had no related treatment devices. So they decided to introduce them to acupuncture.

TCM is built on a foundation of more than 2,500 years of medical practice. It includes various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage, exercise, and dietary therapy.

Acupuncture treatments used to be something new to the African continent. Now, an increasing number of African patients accept and receive traditional Chinese medical therapy. That highlights a new development in the over five-decade-long China-Africa medical cooperation.

Huang has helped more locals understand how traditional therapies work. He's happy to see that most people don't reject the approach.

Many locals go to China to study the practice of TCM. Huang said that’s a choice they made after having a deeper and better understanding of the medical system.

China sent its first medical team to Africa in 1963. Since then, it has sent medical teams to 45 African countries on over 20,000 trips. The teams have provided 220 million people with medical services. TCM treatment is becoming one of this team's distinguishing features.

Compared to Western medical therapies, the Chinese ones have their own advantages, especially in places where there aren't enough medicine or medical devices.

Wang Zhiyong, the head of the Chinese medical team in the Republic of Congo, said that one big advantage of TCM is that it is easy to perform, and it doesn't have high requirements for medical equipment. Take acupuncture and sticking-plaster, for example, which are cheap, and are easy to use.

Now a new hospital built by China has provided the medical team, local medical personnel, and local patients with a much better working and treatment environment.

That has attracted more people, which in turn gives TCM more opportunities to be understood and accepted by the local residents.

Huang Yue hopes acupuncture can serve as a stepping stone, a necessary first step to full recognition of TCM in Africa.