HAMBURG, Germany - Unlike his classmates, Zhou Yuequn, a 22-year-old student in his last year at the Shanghai University of Science and Technology, is not preoccupied with job hunting or exam preparations for post-graduate study. Instead, Zhou decided to participate an exchange program in Germany for six months.

"Doing such exchange programs abroad in the last year on campus really means a lot of possible missed opportunities at home, such as job hunting, exam preparation. But what can be more important than experience itself?" said Zhou, who left to study communication and design at the Hamburg University of Applied Science one month ago.

"It is not a question of 'why', but 'why not'," he added.

There are currently 24,443 Chinese university students studying in Germany, making the group one of the largest bodies of international students in the country, according to the latest statistics released by the country's national statistics office.

Since its designation as a sister city to Shanghai 25 years ago, Hamburg now benefits from more Sino-German exchange programs, which have expanded to include areas other than education.

Chinese medicine

A research center that specialized on patient treatment with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as well as conducting pioneering research in diseases such as breast cancer was established in July 2010 at the affiliated hospital of Hamburg University's medical school, the largest comprehensive medical facility in the city

The research center was the first of its kind in Germany, highlighting the importance of TCM and the country's interest in seeking increased cooperation with China.

Although TCM was initially looked upon with skepticism, a growing number of Hamburg patients are now seeking the "magic and efficient" power of Chinese herbs and traditional treatments such as acupuncture, according to Dr Sven Schroder, director of the center, who now receives around 20 patients every day.

In cooperation with Chinese hospitals, the center aims to combine TCM with Western medicine to explore new treatment possibilities in combating diseases such as breast cancer, according to Schroder, whose interest in TCM began more than 10 years ago after reading Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, the seminal text on the subject.

According to Schroder, a survey found that 61 percent of Germans preferred to be treated with a combination of Western medicine and TCM in case of illness. Among those that had previously been treated with TCM, the approval rate for is even higher - 89 percent.

"Although TCM is thousands of years old, we are trying to find space for improvement, and the combination (of Western medicine and TCM) offers possibilities," Schroder said.