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Fritz Hoffmann

The entire May 2008 issue was dedicated to stories from China. In this photo from a culinary school in Hefei, chefs-in-training prepare vegetables in flaming woks.

At the Shaolin Temple in Zhengzhou, China, Buddhist monks use their arms to measure the circumference of a cypress tree.

A captive panda enjoys some bamboo in the afternoon sun at the Wolong Nature Reserve in China. Giant pandas are endangered, and a Chinese national program raises captive-born pandas that will one day be released into nature reserves and other protected areas.

A girl celebrates her 10th birthday with her friends, getting manicures at a Barbie-themed store in Shanghai, China.

Demand for pangolin scales, used in traditional Chinese medicine, has made the pangolin the most heavily trafficked non-human mammal in the world.

At a clinic in Beckley, West Virginia, Jeff Hendricks receives acupuncture and a plant-burning technique called moxibustion to ease pain related to four years of military service. He suffers from a brain injury, bulging disks in his neck, bone spurs, headaches, numbness in his hands, and PTSD. The Veterans Administration-approved treatment reduces the need for conventional drugs.

At China's Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine hospital, twin sisters Zheng Yue and Zheng Hao wear medicinal patches that contain a formula of herbal medicine used as a seasonal treatment to expel heat from the body during summer.

In a fire treatment session in Chengdu, an alcohol-soaked cloth is draped over a patient and set alight to warm the skin and open the pores; an herb-infused oil is then applied. The therapy aims to treat joint pain and other ailments, but research has yet to prove such claims.

After a weightlifting workout, James Harrison received a Chinese cupping treatment, in which a therapist uses suction to attach plastic cups to the skin. In recent years many athletes and trainers have embraced the therapy as a way to reduce inflammation, increase blood flow, and perform a type of deep tissue massage.

Student chefs prepare vegetables over flaming woks in the city of Hefei, China.