December 5, 2018

I will set off from Shanghai to Frankfurt tomorrow morning. But I can't meet Prof. Mayer.

He will fly to Dubai from Munich. There is a very, very important patient for spine surgery waiting for him in Dubai.

Though as the founding president of German Spine Society, he has to cancel all activities in Wiesbaden this year.

December 6, 2018

I flew to Frankfurt from Shanghai early this morning. My friend drove from Munich to Frankfurt Airport today to pick up Helen and me. In 2005, Helen went abroad for the first time and flew to Munich with me before Christmas. After so many years, we still work together.

Only one-third of the seats on the flight were occupied today. Outside the window, there were marvellous mountains and rivers. In-flight WiFi was quite fast so working from the plane was possible.

Today’s first stop is Mainz. I went to Mainz with my son and colleagues in 2009. Twenty kilometers from Frankfurt, Mainz is a small medieval town on the Rhine coast and home to Mayer.

Prof. Mayer went to college at the age of 21 and attended the oldest medical school in Mainz. At the age of 29, he completed his undergraduate and master's degrees in Mainz. At the age of 31, he completed his Ph.D. in Berlin. In 1989, Prof. Mayer won the Best Performance Award at the 2nd Annual Meeting of the International Intervertebral Therapy Association in Orlando, USA.

He became the world's most famous minimally invasive spine surgery master from a teenager at a village in central Germany. His legend starts in Mainz.

Tomorrow I am going to Wiesbaden to attend the 2018 Annual Congress of German Spine Society.

We were the only three foreign women in the venue of 2500 people, like the three most dazzling stars in the night sky. As Ms Li said, "You are spoiled by Germans." Germany is definitely my second hometown.

December 7, 2018Mainz, Prof. Mayer’s hometown made Helen quite disappointed because it’s not beautiful at all. We had noodles in a small square last night. They tasted too ordinary. Mainz is definitely not a tourist city. Before the age of 28, Prof. Mayer stayed here. Then he went to Berlin and stayed there for 16 years, and then in Munich for 20 years. Half of his life has gone.

Today, we attended the 2018 Annual Congress of German Spine Society.

1,200 people attended the congress in the main venue and there were 16 parallel sessions with hundreds of exhibitions and a total of 2500 experts registered.

It was a German national academic conference. Eyes are filled with handsome European men with neat suits. This was an authentic international conference and it was what’s called high standard. You could feel its international style at the first sight. We were the only three Chinese women in the venue.

The buffet lunch of the Annual Congress of German Spine Society was very abundant but I can’t have anymore for I was too exhausted.

The Director of Spine Center of Sch?n Klinik München Harlaching had been looking for me everywhere. Finally he found me at the exhibition stage of German Spine Society. We had a conversation about the 2019 Annual Congress of German Spine Society.

I’m going to meet two German spine master in the afternoon.

December 8, 2018
German Spine Society was founded in May 2006 by Prof. Mayer. This year is the 13th annual congress.

Whether you are the president, a master, a lecturer, or a doctor, you wear a green badge. There is no security check at the entrance to all conferences and there is no security check system. You are free to attend classes.

This year, 2,500 people registered. Buffet service is available from 8am to 6pm. A variety of dishes are offered. Everyone is allowed to enjoy the meal. Everyone is offered free service of luggage and coat deposit.

80% of the participants were in suits and ties. The venue is like a university lecture hall. This year, a main venue and 16 sessions are hold at the same time. 1200 seats in the main venue were all occupied, and each of the sessions has an average of 100 people. The discussion was very heated.

The first Annual Congress of German Spine Society in 2006 was held in Munich by Prof. Mayer as the founding president. The 14th Annual Congress of German Spine Society will return to Munich in 2019. In 2019, Munich will be home to our outstanding Chinese spine experts.

The most amazing thing about the congress is the hundreds of exhibiting companies. The sales staff are all 40 to 50 years old. They are very professional. German medical equipment is like a craft. Almost all multinational corporations are sponsors of German Spine Society every year. The German Spine Society also supports and respects them.

Today, the 13th Annual Congress of German Spine Society ended perfectly. This is a real international conference, absolutely of high standard.

My meeting with the professors was at the exhibition stage of German Spine Society, where there were comfortable chairs. Scheler prepared water, chocolate and biscuits for us. It was like our back garden.

In Germany, I am also a foreign woman and a lovely Chinese woman wearing a cheongsam. There was no time to take pictures. I stepped on five-inch high heels and was tired and painful. A German exhibitor massaged my foot. This helped me hold on.

In the afternoon, I rushed to Frankfurt to meet Jean Charles, President of the French Spine Society. He flew from Bordeaux to Frankfurt to meet with experts of German Spine Society.

He was very happy to meet us. He will come to China again in May and September next year. He is looking forward to it very much. This is the second international visiting professor that Jiangmen Central Hospital has employed globally.

This is the overall view of Dean Li Yuming and the international vision of Director Chen Zhongyu. Jiangmen Central Hospital has developed very rapidly in the past two years.

In the evening, Prof. Mayer's best friend Prof. Daniel drove himself to pick us up. He invited us to go to Frankfurt on the River Main to have dinner. It is a 243-year-old traditional restaurant. He used to come to eat with his parents at Christmas. With the oil of goose on the bread, the taste was very special. The main dish was a goose. In Germany, people eat goose at Christmas. The dessert was amazing and was only available before Christmas.

We had dinner with Prof. Daniel and his wife. He is an Argentine, and at the age of 25 he went to the medical school of University of Frankfurt to study for a Ph.D. He brought his 23-year-old girlfriend to Germany, now his wife. At the age of 39, he became the Deputy Dean of the University Hospital of Frankfurt and the Director of Neurosurgery Department. He is also the former President of German Spine Society.

Five years ago, he bought 500 hectares, nearly 5 million square meters of land in Argentina to develop agriculture. He told me that because Argentina is his motherland, this is the best way to repay his motherland and the best way to purify the soul. He is also the only investor in this project. He is 62 years old and he will retire five years later, but he has dreams in his heart, which impresses me so deeply.

Anecdote:
This morning, in a hurry to meet with the Secretary of the German Spine Society, I told the hotel receptionist that I had to check out quickly because I was in a hurry. “ I am going to the airport.“ A German man next to me immediately said that he could send me to the airport.

I checked out and saw that he and his driver had been waiting for me at the hotel gate. They were to send me to the airport. I was really touched at that moment. I told him that I had a car and I really appreciated it.  German man are just too good. We met each other out of coincidence but he still was willing to help me. Germany is really my second hometown.

December 9, 2018
In the morning, I went to the High Taunus Hospital in Bad Avon, Germany. The population of Bad Avon is 60,000, and there are countless luxurious mansions. Twenty kilometers from Frankfurt, this is a new public hospital built three years ago.

We personally visited Prof. Daniel, the 2013 President of German Spine Society and Director of Spine Center of the hospital. The hospital is quite modern. His office is very beautiful, with marvellous scenery outside the window, white snow in the winter and green fields in the spring.

Inside the office are various spine anatomy diagrams, and the plate of the visiting professors of Jiangmen People's Hospital could be seen at a glance, as well as the Kaiping Diaolou and the employment letter from Liao Yuan. Dr. Feng Jiawei from Jiangmen People's Hospital has been studying in the hospital for three months, and he has gained a lot.

Three women drove 220 km from Badonghong to G?ttingen, and G?ttingen was home of Grimm's fairy tale. This is a romantic town. We were cold and hungry. We found an old coffee shop and had lunch there. I was very sad there. 2018 is passing by. I have met countless difficulties and I quietly endure. I never told him and he has not a notion of it. In the evening we decided to visit a traditional German Christmas market.

To be continued