TCM in China
What TCM actually costs in China
Two different things are being sold, and only one of them has a published price. The hands-on treatment — needling, cupping, scraping, moxibustion, massage — is a listed service with a provincial price ceiling you can look up. The herbs are a prescription, priced by weight, with no national price at all.
Reviewed 2026-09-21. Every figure below is taken from a provincial or municipal health security bureau price schedule, or from a hospital's own published price list, and each one is cited at the foot of this page. This is general information, not medical advice.
The hands-on treatment: published per-session prices
Since 2026 Chinese provinces have been integrating and repricing these items under a national framework, and one of the structural changes is worth knowing: the unit of billing moved from "per point" to "per session". One treatment is charged once, not multiplied by the number of needles.
| Service (published item name) | What the published price covers | Prices found in official schedules |
|---|---|---|
| Conventional needling (常规针法) | Point selection, disinfection, needle choice, insertion, manipulation, retention and removal, with instrument assistance where needed | ¥62 (Huangshan, tertiary municipal) · ¥65 (Anhui provincial public institutions, and Wuhu) · ¥39 / ¥43 / ¥48 by institution tier (Ezhou) |
| Special needle technique (特殊针具针法) | Needling with non-standard needle types | ¥78 (Anhui provincial public institutions) |
| Special manipulation technique (特殊手法针法) | Special point-opening methods or specialised manual technique with filiform needles | ¥90 (Anhui provincial public institutions) |
| Scraping (中医刮痧) | Repeated scraping and friction on the body surface with a scraping tool | ¥70 provincial ceiling (Fushun) · ¥57 (Wuhu and Anhui provincial public institutions) · ¥54 (Huangshan, tertiary municipal) · ¥27–30 (Hebei, municipal and provincial) |
| Cupping (中医拔罐) | Cleaning, applying the cup, observation, removal, disposal | ¥41 per session (Jiangxi) · ¥48.04 / ¥50.78 / ¥54.90 by institution tier (Yangjiang) |
| Moving and flash cupping (走罐 / 闪罐) | Sliding the cup across the surface, or repeated application and release | ¥41 each per session (Jiangxi) |
| Suspended moxibustion (悬空灸) | Moxa held at a distance from the skin | ¥38 (Anhui provincial public institutions) · ¥64.58 / ¥68.27 / ¥73.80 by institution tier (Yangjiang) |
| Tui na — neck (颈部疾病推拿) | Manual technique and force applied to treat neck conditions | ¥60 (Jiangxi) · ¥77.18 / ¥81.59 / ¥88.20 by institution tier (Yangjiang) |
| Tui na — lower back (腰部疾病推拿) | Manual technique applied to treat lower back conditions | ¥63 / ¥66.60 / ¥72 by institution tier (Yangjiang) |
| Tui na — back (背部疾病推拿) | Manual technique applied to the back | ¥49.50 per session (Yangjiang) |
| Tui na — head and face (头面部疾病推拿) | Manual technique applied to head and face conditions | ¥60 per session (Jiangxi) |
Where three figures are given for one service, they are the tiered prices for tertiary, secondary and primary-level public institutions in that city — treating at a smaller institution is cheaper by rule, not by negotiation.
At the very bottom of the system, a community health centre in Shandong publishes its own list, and it shows how much cheaper primary care is: ordinary needling ¥30 per five points, indirect moxibustion ¥45 per cone, suspended-cone moxibustion over the spine ¥270 per session, neck tui na ¥50, lower back tui na ¥55, scraping ¥45 per area, cupping ¥10 per three cups. Those entries still use the older per-point and per-cup units — an illustration of how unevenly the per-session reform has landed, and a reminder to read the unit on any list before comparing the numbers.
Four rules that change what you actually pay
- Overlapping techniques are not added up. If a session uses conventional needling plus a special needle technique plus special manipulation, the schedule states that you are charged at the rate of the highest single item — not the sum. The same principle applies to cups: using several types in one session is not charged cumulatively.
- Surcharges are published, not improvised. Provincial schedules set a surcharge for a chief or associate chief physician (commonly +30%) and a separate children's surcharge (also commonly 30%). If a senior doctor costs more, that is the rule at work.
- Institution tier sits inside the price. Tertiary, secondary and primary institutions have different ceilings for the same named service — in one city, neck tui na runs ¥88.20 at tertiary level and ¥77.18 at primary level. Choosing where you are treated changes the price by design.
- Premium and international sections are a different pricing model. A hospital's 特需 or 国际医疗部 section charges under market-adjusted rules rather than the government ceiling. The general cost page covers how those two models differ and why the same phrase on a menu can mean two very different total bills.
What has no published price: the herbs
This is the part that surprises people, and it is a real feature of the system rather than a gap in the information.
Chinese herbal pieces (中药饮片) are not on the government price list. They are a market-priced product. What the rules fix is not the price but the mark-up: a public institution buying herbal pieces through proper channels may sell them at no more than 25% above the actual purchase price, and non-herbal Chinese medicines are sold at zero mark-up. Because the purchase price itself depends on origin, quality and supply channel, the same herb can legitimately differ a lot between two hospitals — one provincial health security bureau said exactly this in writing when asked why prices were not unified.
Cost is coming down at the wholesale end. A national pilot pooled 21 herbal varieties across 15 provinces and about 6,050 institutions, and the average price fell 29.5%. But that shows up in the pharmacy's purchase price, not as a figure you can predict before you have a prescription.
What is published is the service fee around the herbs:
| Service | Unit | Published price |
|---|---|---|
| Decoction service (中药代煎服务费) — soaked, boiled, merged, portioned into sealed individual sachets | per prescription | ¥4 (Fuzhou) · ¥4.80 (Yunnan) — in Yunnan the standard covers three sachets, with 33% added for each further sachet |
| Custom processing (中药临方加工费) — turning the prescription into a paste, pills, capsules, granules and similar forms | per 100 g of herbal material | ¥15 (Fuzhou) · ¥13–15 by institution tier (Hainan). Under 100 g is billed as 100 g; the weight excludes any excipient |
| Granule dispensing (中药配方颗粒调剂费) | per prescription | ¥4 (Fuzhou) · ¥3.60–4 by institution tier (Hainan). Granules themselves are sold at zero mark-up |
One practical consequence: a prescription that is decocted for you adds only a few yuan to the bill. The variable is the herbs.
So what does a visit cost?
Adding it up honestly, for a public hospital outside the premium sections:
- Consultation. Whatever that institution charges for an outpatient consultation at the relevant physician grade — figures for that are on the general cost page, and they vary more by city than by anything to do with TCM.
- One treatment session. Roughly ¥30–90 for the common techniques in the schedules above, depending on which technique, which province and which tier of institution. Senior-doctor and children's surcharges add on top.
- Herbs, if prescribed. Unknown until you have the prescription. There is no honest way to quote this in advance, and anyone who does is guessing.
- Decoction or processing. A few yuan per prescription.
Do not compare provinces
The four scraping prices on this page — ¥70, ¥57, ¥54 and ¥27 — are all correct, in different places written into different official documents. A price that looks wrong in your city is very often just another province's number being repeated online.
If you want to check what your own hospital should be charging, ask at the counter for the price list — public hospitals are required to publish their prices, and to give you an itemised statement of what you were charged. That is a normal request in China, not a challenge.
The honest version
TCM in a Chinese public hospital is cheap at the treatment end and unpredictable at the prescription end. A single session is priced like a modest restaurant meal and you can find the exact figure in a government document. The herbs are where a course of treatment acquires a real cost, and by design nobody publishes a number for them.
The reliable preparation is therefore not a budget figure. It is knowing two things before you start: what the per-session fee for your technique is in this province, and that the herbal part will be quoted to you at the pharmacy window rather than before you walk in.
Spotted something inaccurate, or has a price changed? Tell me and it gets corrected.
Sources
Everything factual on this page traces to the following. Where a rule is time-limited or still in draft, that is stated in the entry.
Most of these are Chinese government or hospital pages. A few of them load slowly outside China, or refuse requests from non-Chinese networks. If a link does not open, search the document's title or its reference number — for example 鄂医保发〔2026〕22号 — and you will find the same document elsewhere.
- Anhui Provincial Health Security Bureau — provincial public institution price adjustment schedule — conventional needling ¥65, special needle technique ¥78, special manipulation technique ¥90, scraping ¥57 and suspended moxibustion ¥38 per session, plus the +30% chief and associate chief physician surcharges and the rule that overlapping needle techniques are billed at the highest single rate
- Wuhu Health Security Bureau — adjusted price schedule for special needle techniques and related services — scraping ¥57 and conventional needling ¥65 per session, with the 30% children's surcharge
- Huangshan Health Security Bureau — municipal institution price adjustment schedule — tiered municipal and county prices: scraping ¥43–54 and conventional needling ¥49.50–62 depending on institution tier
- Ezhou Health Security Bureau and Health Commission — consolidation and repricing notice (PDF) — conventional needling at ¥48 / ¥43 / ¥39 across institution tiers, and the accompanying requirements on price publication and itemised statements
- Yangjiang Municipal People's Government — consolidation of Chinese medicine price items — the single richest single source on this page: suspended moxibustion ¥64.58–73.80, cupping ¥48.04–54.90, neck tui na ¥77.18–88.20, lower back tui na ¥63–72 and back tui na ¥49.50, all tiered; plus the statement that the unit of billing moved from per point to per session
- Jiangxi Provincial Health Security Bureau — consolidated price schedule for moxibustion, cupping and tui na — cupping, moving cupping and flash cupping at ¥41 per session; neck tui na and head-and-face tui na at ¥60 per session; and the 30% surcharge for children under six
- Fushun Health Security Bureau — external therapy, acupuncture and moxibustion/cupping/tui na price notice (PDF) — provincial ceiling of ¥70 for scraping — the highest scraping figure on this page
- Tangshan Health Security Bureau forwarding Hebei's rules on external-therapy price items (PDF) — Hebei's provincial and municipal guidance: scraping at ¥30 and ¥27, and the rule that using several types of cup in one treatment is not charged cumulatively
- Kenli Subdistrict Community Health Centre, Shandong — Guoyitang service and price list — primary-care prices: ordinary needling ¥30 per five points, indirect moxibustion ¥45 per cone, spine moxibustion ¥270 per session, neck tui na ¥50, lower back tui na ¥55, scraping ¥45 per area, cupping ¥10 per three cups, bloodletting cupping ¥15 per cup
- Yunnan Provincial Health Security Bureau — pharmaceutical service prices (PDF) — decoction service fee ¥4.80 per prescription, based on three sachets with 33% added for each additional sachet
- Fuzhou Health Security Bureau — consolidated pharmaceutical service price items (PDF) — decoction service ¥4 per prescription, custom processing ¥15 per 100 g, granule dispensing ¥4 per prescription, and the definition of the processing service and its unit of billing
- Hainan Provincial Health Security Bureau — pharmaceutical service price items and standards (PDF) — the tiered ranges for custom processing (¥13–15 per 100 g) and granule dispensing, and the definition of the specific dosage forms the processing service covers
- National Health Security Administration and National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine — guiding opinions on health-security support for traditional Chinese medicine (医保函〔2021〕229号) — the mark-up rule: herbal pieces from proper channels sold at no more than 25% above purchase price, non-herbal Chinese medicines at zero mark-up
- National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine — reply to the 2nd session of the 14th National People's Congress, suggestion 8528 — restates the 25% mark-up rule; records the pooled procurement of 21 herbal varieties across 15 provinces and about 6,050 institutions with average price reductions of 29.5%; and states that, with few exceptions, medicines in China are market-priced
- Zhejiang Provincial Health Security Bureau — reply on a proposal to set retail guidance prices for herbal pieces — the clearest official statement that herbal pieces are not in the government pricing catalogue, are market-priced, and therefore differ between institutions according to origin, quality and purchasing channel
Reviewed 2026-09-21.
This page is informational only and is not medical advice. Prices are provincial ceilings as published on the dates cited, and they change — several provinces are still phasing in the consolidated schedules, so one city may lag another. Herbal costs cannot be predicted from this page. Confirm current prices with the hospital you plan to attend. Last reviewed: 2026-09-21.