DAVID BELVER GARCIA has been attracted to traditional Chinese medicine since his student days in Tarragona, a coastal city in Spain south of his native Barcelona. Born in 1970, his personal journey has finally brought him to a family clinic in Shenzhen that is part of the International SOS. He's been chief medical officer there for more than a year.

Once he completed his studies and was certified by the Spanish Ministry of Health to work as a family doctor, Belver Garcia pursued Chinese medicine.

Trained in traditional Chinese medicine in Barcelona, he decided it was time to continue his studies closer to the source.

On a scholarship from the Spanish Foreign Office and the Chinese Ministry of Education, he studied Chinese language and medicine in Nanjing from 1998 to 2002, earning a master's degree in acupuncture and tuina (Chinese massage) from Nanjing Traditional Chinese Medicine University.

Back in Barcelona, Belver Garcia spent the next three years working as a Western doctor in the morning at a government clinic and practicing acupuncture and massage at a private clinic in the afternoon, finally opening his own clinic. He said: "I got really good results with orthopedic problems like back pain."

Although Belver Garcia and his wife, Ruey Wu, met in Nanjing, where she was a radio producer and broadcaster, he chose to work in Shekou because "I'm from Spain. We need the sun."

In Shekou, he's strictly a Western doctor but remains interested in Chinese medicine. He explained: "The ancient Chinese compass pointed south, toward trade; not north, toward cold weather and barbarians. Culture is very rich. There are many ways to approach everything."

Editor: Wing