HOHHOT: A blueprint for the future development of Mongolian medicine is being drawn up by around 300 specialists at a special conference which ends today.

Sponsored by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the People's Government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the 2001 International Academic Conference on Mongolian Medicine opened in the region's capital on Saturday.

This is the second international symposium on traditional ethnic medicine held in China. The first was held last year and focused on Tibetan medicine.

The conference received 963 papers from Chinese scholars in 14 provinces and autonomous regions and foreign scholars from countries as diverse as the People's Republic of Mongolia, Russia, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland.

"China's national medicines, including Mongolian medicine, were created with the people's wisdom and serve people of all ethnic groups," said Minister of Health Zhang Wenkang. "To develop national medicines is not only an issue of public health or academic research but also an important part of carrying on the national cultural heritages."

Mongolian medicine is an old medical school that has a well-organized theoretical system and a long history of clinical experience.

Initially Mongolian medicine developed slowly, with just a few doctors who mainly treated patients in Lama temples.

In recent years, though, Mongolian medicine has gone through a rapid development.

Echoing this trend has been the establishment of the Department of Traditional Chinese and Mongolian Medicine at the Inner Mongolia Medical College, the Mongolian Medical College of Inner Mongolia and a Mongolian Medical School.