She cuts an orange in quarters, places the fruit in a small white porcelain bowl and hands me a glass of room temperature water.

“It is the Chinese style. When people visit, you give a little fruit or a cookie.”

Liling agrees to let me ask her a few questions. We have some similarities and lots of differences.

When I was eighteen, I went to a small girls college in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. When Liling was eighteen, she was living amidst the backdrop of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. She was sent to a rural labor camp with seven other girls to pick tea leaves. Mao Zedong’s leadership dictated collective labor and demanded an increase in agricultural production. Cultural suppression was everywhere. In this remote mountain village, there was no electricity, no heat and illumination came from the sunlight in the daytime and an oil lamp in the evenings. Liling and the other girls continued their independent studies.

“That time in China was very hard. We wasted a generation.”

Of her time picking tea leaves she said,

“It was very boring and we cried a lot.”

Her chestnut eyes look directly at me. Her gaze is reflective.

“That experience helped me. It gave me confidence.”

Mao Zedong’s leadership changed policies and compromised traditional values. The entire educational system was damaged. Many youth were denied an education. Teachers had been eliminated, and the districts were forced to rely upon chosen students to educate the next generation. So, after a year picking tea leaves, Liling was chosen to educate elementary and middle school children. She taught math, singing and physical education.

When Liling was in elementary school she dreamily remembers wanting to be a dancer. I wonder about the origin of the name, Liling and its English translation. She tells me,

“Li means pretty girl. Ling means cute.”

It is a common name.

“In China my first and middle name were separated, but here, people like my name all together.”

By the time she reached High School, she had two wishes, to become a Medical Doctor or an English translator. Those were dreams with detours. When the government permitted Liling to continue her education, she completed her college application and under educational aspirations she wrote: Medical Doctor.

I asked Liling who inspired her during this time.

“My grandmother. She was a Chinese Medical Doctor. I guess it’s heredity.”

She was informed that she would not be permitted to become a doctor.

“ I had no choice.”

Nurses were needed and she completed the training and became a Registered Nurse. She was happy to return to her hometown in the South of China and she learned both Eastern and Western medicine while working in the Hospital. She worked in the Orthopedic Surgery Department.

Acupuncture has been practiced in China for thousands of years. Stimulating certain points in the body by penetrating the skin with needles can restore weak stagnation or a diminished source of energy. Liling received a certificate in Acupuncture a few years before coming to America.

Upon her arrival in San Francisco in 1989, she lived in Chinatown for a short time and perfected her English.

“My speaking was OK, but my listening was poor.”

While attending City College, both her speaking and comprehension improved and within a year she felt proficient enough to move out of Chinatown.

Prior to receiving her Acupuncture License in America, Liling worked privately for a Dr. as a Physical Therapist Assistant as well as at Kaiser Hospital as an Acupuncturist Assistant.

Golden Gate Acupuncture was launched in 2000 and her office is now at 1327 9^th Avenue, (415-564-8878) and today Dr. Liling Zheng Gao is my Acupuncturist. Acupuncture has given me relief from allergies, a fractured finger, disturbing stress and whiplash.

After she carefully places the needles into the necessary meridians, she reminds me,

“Focus your mind on the sea of the chi.”

The chi, is the energy flow throughout the body. The body has two inseparable forces: yin and yang. The cold, or passive and the hot and active. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the goal is to maintain a balanced state, and when out of balance, acupuncture can help unblock an imbalance by inserting needles at certain points in the body that connect with the meridians, or our pathways to energy.

In 1989, Liling learned Da Yan Chi Gong in China and she practices every morning and presently is the only instructor teaching this particular style of Chi Gong in San Francisco. The practice helps to stabilize the yin and yang and bring forth a balance of vital energy. There are 64 movements and postures resembling the movements of wild geese, the bird renowned in China for longevity.

While in San Francisco, Liling received the pinnacle in Traditional Chinese Medicine; A Master’s Degree. She continued her precise course of study and was granted a Doctor’s Degree in Oriental Medicine.

Dr. Liling Zheng Gao would like her patients to know that “Acupuncture is, not scary.” As she inserts the needles, she teaches her patients simple breathing techniques so that her patients relax and build up their chi. If she notices that her patient still has a chi stagnation when removing the needles, she instructs her patient to exhale deeply to alleviate their chi stagnation.

She likes living and working in this neighborhood.

“Sometimes it’s foggy, but I see lots of Chinese faces, and I can get the Chinese newspaper. The transportation is good and it’s close to the bank and the post office.”

She takes great pride in her work.

“I feel happy when I see my patients healed. I’m lucky to practice Acupuncture in San Francisco.”

Having Dr. Liling Zheng Gao as one of my health care professionals and neighbors, I know I’m lucky too.